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Kenya: Heads Must Roll At Examination Body
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The East African Standard (Nairobi)
EDITORIAL
23 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Nairobi
Never has the credibility and integrity of the national examination body been under such attack. In the past, all the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) has grappled with are claims of cheating and perennial delays in paying markers.
Knec has often battled claims that examination papers are on sale. But it has always weathered the storm.
Knec has also fought cheating with brutal efficiency. Last year, the number of cheats caught trebled the figures reported in 2006. Its consistency and unrelenting war on cheating has won it respect over the years. It is this that has helped Knec reinforce its integrity and high regard by the public as well as universities, tertiary institutions and the job market. But that was at least until this month when the council recalled the results of 4,438 candidates out of the 276,239, who sat the examinations, ostensibly for "slight adjustments".
This has opened a Pandora box and Kenya's education sector is swaying, parents are confused, students are lost, and the nation is shamed.
The situation has been compounded by the fact that in the usual tradition of Kenya's leaders, Education minister Prof Sam Ongeri, his Permanent Secretary Prof Karega Mutahi, and Knec secretary Mr Paul Wasanga, have all resorted to diversionary tactics. They all have, through various terminologies, strove to downplay the problem.
Despite the fact that it affects 857 schools, the minister has been quick to point out that the "computer error" only affected the aggregate, not the score per subject. But it appears even as Ongeri and his team take refuge in percentage and decimal points, signs are now out the problem is bigger than we were told.
Marks determine future
One principal in Western Kenya reported he got three sets of lists and does not know which one to go by. Another school in Central was told its 22 candidates did not sit the exam.
Then there is the glaring flaws in the rating of candidates, where besides the relegation from a higher grade, some with higher points find themselves a grade lower that those who scored less. We have said before, and we repeat, it is not the number of candidates and schools affected that matters, but the fact that it did happen. Why? The anomalies reported poke holes in our examination system!
We cannot carry on as if we do not know that our universities use the grades to determine who to take or leave out. The examinations are the lifeline of our youths, no matter what reasons the minister has against remarking. In fact some universities are reported to be toying with the idea of its own entry test for the students who qualify on Knec's scale.
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As we have said before, our institutions of integrity are failing the nation. It is not enough that minister appoints a probe team to look into all aspects of the 2007 national exams. If indeed it is true Knec has two servers but chose to run the examinations on just one, then the degree of negligence and impunity in Knec is appalling.
Even as the committee begins the probe in the background of the minister's concession this is a national embarrassment, heads must roll at Knec, for the worst has happened.
The committee's findings should be how to solve the problem at hand. The nation is impatient with time-buying gimmicks. We must restore Knec's integrity and credibility at all costs.
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