Exam cheats face stiff penalties
Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri (left) holds the results of 2007 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams earlier this year. The national examination council proposes a Sh250,000 fine for culprits and accomplices. Cheats also face cancellation of entire exam results. Photo/FILE
What you need to know:
- Exam cheats and their accomplices to be fined Sh250,000 according to proposal
- If more than a third of candidates found to have cheated at a school, institution will cease to be an examination centre.
- Unscrupulous police officers and education officials were believed to be behind the leakages.
Exam cheats and their accomplices will be fined Sh250,000 if a proposal by the Kenya National Examinations Council is adopted.
Knec also wants people found in possession of examination materials or information before the candidates sit for the papers to be jailed for three years.
These were among proposals presented to the Parliamentary Committee on Education by Knec chief executive Paul Wasanga.
According to the document, which is calling for an urgent amendment of the Examinations Act, candidates found copying work of their colleagues or consulting during a test, face a fine of Sh50,000.
They will also have their entire results cancelled and barred from taking an examination conducted by the council for two years.
If more than one third of candidates are found to have cheated at a school, the institution will cease to be an examination centre.
For years claims of cheating in national examinations have been made.
In its push for amendment of the Examinations Act, the council says the current laws, revised in 1981, lacked capacity and scope to handle modern challenges facing national tests.
“The current Act lacks a robust legal framework to enforce compliance with the provisions of managing examinations and dealing with offences and irregularities in the context of emerging challenges and technologies,” says the council in its recommendations.
Under the current Act, candidates who engaged in cheating are liable to a fine of Sh5,000, which the council says was too low to stop examination leakages and other malpractices.
Last year, cases of people having access to papers prior to the examination were reported in some parts of the country. Several suspects were arrested but no conviction has been made so far.
Leakages
Unscrupulous police officers and education officials were believed to be behind the leakages.
Security officers were on the spot as they had access to where the examination papers were kept. The council says cases of leakages, impersonation of candidates and copying of scripts needed deterrent measures if they are to be eradicated. The proposals come a month before students sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.
