FRED MATIANG’I

Su­per­vises KCPE exam

The Star (Kenya) - - News - HENRY WANYAMA @hwanyama1

Ed­u­ca­tion Cabi­net Sec­re­tary Fred Matiang’i has lived up to his prom­ise to per­son­ally su­per­vise the na­tional ex­am­i­na­tions to curb cheat­ing. He pitched tent in Vi­higa county as the KCPE exam started yes­ter­day. A host of se­nior Ed­u­ca­tion min­istry direc­tors joined the CS to su­per­vise the exam in other re­gions.

Ed­u­ca­tion CS Fred Matiang’i has lived up to his prom­ise to per­son­ally su­per­vise the na­tional ex­am­i­na­tions to curb cheat­ing.

He pitched tent in Vi­higa county as the KCPE exam started yes­ter­day. A host of se­nior Ed­u­ca­tion min­istry direc­tors joined the CS to su­per­vise the exam in other re­gions.

In Emuhaya sub­county, Vi­higa, Matiang’i wit­nessed head teach­ers col­lect maths, English lan­guage and com­po­si­tion pa­pers at 5am.

Other se­nior ed­u­ca­tion of­fi­cials su­per­vis­ing ex­ams are Higher Ed­u­ca­tion PS Col­lette Suda in Mig­ori, Ba­sic Ed­u­ca­tion PS Be­lio Kip­sang (Coast), Tech­ni­cal, Vo­ca­tional and Ed­u­ca­tion Train­ing PS Di­nah Mwinzi (Embu), Ed­u­ca­tion Di­rec­tor Gen­eral Leah Rotich (Ny­eri) and No­madic Ed­u­ca­tion di­rec­tor Eliash Abdi (Bu­sia)

Oth­ers are Qual­ity As­sur­ance di­rec­tor Pius Mutisya (Kisii), Ba­sic Ed­u­ca­tion di­rec­tor Ha­bat Abdi (Isi­olo), East African Pol­icy Af­fairs di­rec­tor Dar­ius Mo­gaka (Kakamega) and Adult Ed­u­ca­tion’s Ir­ra­ne­ous Ki­nara (Ki­tui).

The Kenya Na­tional Ex­am­i­na­tion Coun­cil mem­bers are also su­per­vis­ing the exam.

In May, the CS promised to set aside all his min­is­te­rial du­ties to su­per­vise na­tional ex­ams. “I will be at the exam cen­tres my­self, work­ing with the su­per­vi­sors. Prin­ci­pal Sec­re­taries, direc­tors from the min­istry and I will work to­gether to en­sure we de­liver cred­i­ble re­sults this time. All of us will be on duty,” Matiang’i had said.

Po­lice manned exam dis­tri­bu­tion cen­tres in the past, where many exam leak­ages were de­tected.

This time round, the gov­ern­ment bought and placed 346 con­tain­ers in all sub­coun­ties to store the exam pa­pers to act as the new dis­tri­bu­tion cen­tres.

The con­tain­ers are un­der 24-hour po­lice guard to stop leak­ages.

For many years, ex­ams have been a high stake event for can­di­dates and teach­ers, who would do any­thing to get good grades. But the gov­ern­ment’s close su­per­vi­sion this year has al­tered the high stakes to cred­i­bil­ity and in­tegrity of the process.

Matiang’i also made im­promptu vis­its to Shalom Academy, Kiringili, and Chango pri­mary schools in Vi­higa county.

At Kiringili he said, “Exam pa­pers should be picked at the same time.”

Maths was the first pa­per. It ran from 8.30am to 10.30am.

Last year’s re­sults for 5,101 KCSE and 2,000 KCPE can­di­dates were can­celled over mal­prac­tices. This led to the sack­ing of se­nior man­agers at Knec.

Pres­i­dent Uhuru Keny­atta has also warned against cheat­ing in ex­ams.

/JOSEPH JAMENYA

Ed­u­ca­tion CS Fred Matiang’i chats with a pupil at Chango Pri­mary School, Vi­higa county, yes­ter­day. He made im­promptu vis­its to Shalom Academy, Kilingili and Chango pri­mary schools

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