Lillian Aluanga
22 March 2008
Nairobi — The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) is in the spotlight again.
Last week, results of over 4,000 candidates who sat for last year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations were recalled after what Knec termed as 'wrong grading'.
This blunder, the council says, was due to a computer error.
Knec's admission has caused wild cries. But this is not the first time the council is receiving the flak for gambling with the lives of thousands of students.
In 2006, the press reported that exam papers were on sale on the streets of Mombasa and Nairobi.
Then, Education PS, Prof Karega Mutahi and Knec boss, Mr Paul Wasanga responded by saying the cases were 'isolated'.
At some point, the media was even blamed for misleading the public.
But when the KCSE results were released, a few students in Mombasa had theirs cancelled. The ministry, however, did not link the cancellation to the examination papers' sale scandal.
The 'scandal' appears to have done little to shake Knec.
In fact at some point the council blamed cases of exam cheating on parents and teachers.
Now, Education Minister, Prof Sam Ongeri terms the present glitch as 'negligible'.
He says 'only' 4,000 candidates are affected since over 200,000 sat for the examination.
"There is no need to remark the examination," he has insisted on different occasions.
Days after the results were made public, a revised list of school ranking proved that something at the examinations body had gone terribly wrong.
Several schools, according to the list, had either moved higher or lower in ranking. This meant their mean scores were duly adjusted.
Among the affected schools was Busara Forest View Academy. In the first list, the school was at position 40 with a performance index of 9.4347. In the revised edition, the school plunged to position 61 with a mean score of 8.8695.
Also chopped off the country's top 50 schools, according to the new list, was Kenya High School. It went down four places from position 48 to 52, with the performance index dropping from 9.2741 to 9.0591.
In Taita Taveta District, Bura Girls, moved from number 50 in the original ranking to occupy the number 46 slot.
The school had a mean score of 9.2555 while at position 50 and 9.1222 at position 46.
What this means is that other schools, which had initially been ahead of Bura Girls were also affected by the revision of mean scores.
Pioneer School in Maragua moved to position 35 from position 37 in the original listing while Kapsabet Boys' High School jumped to position 24 up from 29.
A section of head teachers and parents, furious at the turn of events claim the exams were deliberately manipulated to favour certain schools. They say they will sue the examinations' council. They also want it disbanded immediately.
"It doesn't matter even if only 10 or 100 results were recalled or a school moves up or down by one position. What we are saying is that this occurrence puts into doubt the credibility of the examinations' council," says a head teacher in Western Province.
In some districts most, if not all, schools were affected in what the education ministry sees as an issue being 'blown out of proportion'.
In West Pokot District for instance, results from 22 out of 23 public secondary schools were affected.
Although the recalling of results was a new dimension in hiccups that are increasingly becoming common with the council, allegations of exam leakage and cheating have been swirling around for the past several years.
In 2003 about 1,022 candidates had their results cancelled over cheating. The figure rose to at least 1,700 candidates from over 100 schools the following year. In 2005, the number significantly dropped to 375 cases in 2005.
Last year is said to have recorded 1,875 cases of exam irregularities. The number is more than twice the 600 cheats caught in 2006.
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