23 March 2008
Nairobi — The integrity and credibility of the Kenya National Examinations Council continued to erode as leaders, parents and teachers demanded its disbandment.
The body is under fire over its handling of last year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination, which saw the results of 4,438 candidates from 857 schools recalled for "slight adjustments".
Education minister, Prof Sam Ongeri, conceded that KNEC's handling of the exams was a "national embarrassment".
Prof Ongeri, who replaced Internal Security minister Prof George Saitoti, released the initial results, but last week, he set up a 15-member team to probe the fiasco.
Though still struggling to downplay the problem which he said affected a negligible number of candidates who wrote the exams - o.6 per cent - the minister said those found to have meddled with the exercise will each carry their cross.
But even more worrying to schools, parents and candidates was the quiet release of a second list, as exclusively reported by The Saturday Standard with more schools and candidates being relegated.
On Saturday, the minister said the second list was indeed the more authoritative, as it was drawn up after the problem was rectified.
"I ask Kenyans to be patient and hold their horses. I assure them that action will be taken against those implicated by Prof Olive Mugenda's commission," the minister told the Sunday standard.
He added: "If somebody is found to have caused this problem, he or she will be arraigned in court. Nobody will go scot-free."
Ongeri revealed that he too wanted to know what transpired and those responsible, and if indeed KNEC was a den of corruption.
He however argued there was no cause for alarm, as individual candidates had not been affected. He added that the second pecking order of schools was arrived at after the tallying error was corrected. "After the errors in tallying the schools' mean grades were corrected, the ministry found it necessary to inform the affected schools, and I see nothing wrong in that."
Ongeri went on: "The KCSE saga does not warrant the hue and cry from Kenyans. I am a responsible minister and parent, and I want Kenyans to have confidence in me and the commission of professionals I have set up."
He said the commission will also probe claims of corruption at the exams body and other ministry related sectors, including university admission teams.
Ongeri, at the same time, took issue with Orange Democratic Movement MPs who criticised him for standing by the results. He said it was wrong for ODM to target him as an individual " knowing very well I was not in charge when the exams were being marked".
"I am reading politics in this attack directed at me. I have assured Kenyans that the problem is being looked at professionally.
"It is clear some leaders are eyeing the ministry, which is why they are dragging me into this debacle. But we leave that to the appointing authority, who is the President," he said.
Ongeri told Kenyans to "read between the lines".
" I was not even the minister when the KCSE exam was done and marked," said Ongeri, adding that he had only announced the results.
He claimed that yesterday's exclusive story in The Saturday Standard was a misrepresentation of facts. "After correcting the erroneous mean grades of candidates, the ranking of schools was bound to be affected," said Ongeri.
ODM Secretary-General, Prof Anyang' Nyong'o, and party chief whip, Mr Jakoyo Midiwo, piled pressure on the Government to restore the integrity and credibility of the examination council.
Said Nyong'o: "We must disband the exam council and replace the staff with people of unrivalled integrity who cannot be compromised or pressured to cook results."
Nyong'o said MPs must legislate laws that would ensure autonomy and professionalism at the council. Kenya Catholic Education Commission Chairman, Bishop Maurice Crowley, said the affected students should not be taken as "mere statistics".
Crowley, also the Kitale Diocese bishop, said it was good that the minister had owned up there was a major fiasco "and it is time now to take action".
"The affected candidates should re-sit a supplementary examination. They have been subjected to a lot of stress, and KNEC should come forward and prepare another examination for them," said the bishop.
The Catholic Church sponsors numerous schools. Some of the affected Church-sponsored schools are Precious Blood Riruta, Loreto Girls, Limuru, and Carmel Girls.
"The minister should address the issue and involve other stakeholders. The students have feelings and after four years, they want to truthfully know how they performed," said the clergyman.
Crowley said the Catholic Church, being a major stakeholder, was worried by reports of cheating in the national examinations. "We do not want to be part of a corrupt system and are taking the reports very seriously," he said.
The bishop said it seemed the examination body lagged behind in technology, hence the computer error.
"How can the council, which manages examinations, be overtaken by technology? It is not possible and we want an explanation from the team," said the bishop.
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (Kuppet) has taken steps to sue the national examinations body over the KCSE fiasco. Secretary-General, Mr Wanyonyi Buteyo, said the union had instructed its lawyers, Mariara and Company Advocates, to move to court over the matter.
And the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KSSHA) demanded that the root cause of the fiasco be exposed.
"We want KNEC disbanded for the disgrace it has caused the country," Buteyo said.
Kenya National Association of Parents Secretary-General, Mr Musau Ndunda, said the issue should not be trivialised and should be investigated as it affected the lives of many ambitious children.
He said the three-week deadline by Ongeri was not sufficient for the probe team to unravel the truth.
"We want the team to physically probe some schools suspected to have been involved in cheating," he said
Mombasa Human Rights Network rejected the second list. An official, Mr Johnrick Mutava, accused the examinations body of traumatising young people who sat KSCE.
He said the network was shocked that the body adjusted the examinations results, with some schools falling back by as many as six slots from the positions read by Ongeri last month.
"This has created stress and trauma to students, parents, teachers. This is a disaster that the Government cannot sweep under the carpet," Mutava said.
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