The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) is on the spot after the National Assembly Committee on Education established that some of its officials aided principals and teachers in exam malpractice during the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
In a Thursday, March 23 report, the MPs who had a session in Mombasa said that investigations revealed that KNEC officials shared copies of the examination papers in exchange for money.
The committee was also concerned with the sudden shift in performance where certain schools registered high grades in the 2022 exams compared to the previous years.
Also Read: KCSE: School Principals Give Reasons why Exam Cheating Exists
“There was cheating in the exam 2022. And the members of the public have put it very clear that most of the cheating originated from the council itself,” Julius Melly, the chairperson of the National Assembly Committee on Education said.
In a previous hearing, teachers who appeared before the committee said pressure to post impressive results also led to cheating in the 2022 examinations.
The school heads say they are pressured by parents and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to post impressive results with some of the principals stating that they received a show cause letter from the employer when learners flopped in the national examinations.
In a statement addressed to the National Assembly committee by the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) Nakuru County Chairperson Kamu Manyara, instances of school heads being frogmarched out of the institutions by politicians and parents due to poor performance piles pressure on principals leading to cheating in national examinations.
“This is what pushes headteachers to do everything possible, including getting involved in exam malpractice to post good results,” Manyara told the committee.
