Tough rules to curb leaks as KCPE starts

Exam authorities have introduced tough measures to curb cheating as over 695,000 Standard Eight candidates sit for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams that start on Tuesday.

As part of the strategy to reduce cheating, school heads and supervisors have been barred from accessing spare examination papers.

However, they will be allowed to use mobile phones in exam centres to communicate with their superiors.

Candidates are banned from carrying mobile phones to examination centres, and those caught are regarded to have cheated and their results will be cancelled.

Delivering papers

Other new measures announced to prevent cheating include delivering papers to exam centres three days before the exams. In previous years, the papers were delivered two weeks before the exam day.

Additionally, teachers with disciplinary records would be barred from invigilating the examinations.

However, Kenya National Examinations Council boss Paul Wasanga said the measures to curb cheating can only “become effective with the cooperation of parents, candidates, and exam officials”.

The council has adopted other tactical measures, including scrapping some features in exam papers, which would have in the past made it easy to identity the scripts to be sent to examination centres on any given day.

The colours of the question papers have been varied for enhanced security. Some of the papers are white while others are green.

Of the 695,704 candidates, about 1,000 were adversely affected by post-election violence that rocked the country between December last year and February this year.

In Nakuru, 470 candidates will be sitting the exams in camps for displaced families, while another 280 will be in other camps in Eldoret.

A special exam centre has been set up in Eldoret for some of the candidates who were displaced by the violence in which 1,133 people were killed.

Seventy-six candidates are expected to be ferried from Central Province to sit the exams in the Rift Valley, which was hardest hit by the chaos.

In Naivasha, an 84-year-old inmate is among those who will be sitting the exams. And in some areas, the exams could be adversely affected by the heavy rains, which have resulted in the deaths of at least 11 people.

In Pokot Central, eight pupils from Annet primary school were among 13 people who died when a temporary house where they were studying collapsed following mudslides on Friday night.

Mr Wasanga exuded confidence that the testing agency had finally put “rumours of exam leaks” to an end. “We have many security features, most of which I cannot share with you,” he said in a telephone interview.

Mr Wasanga said the council was always looking ahead to explore new measures that could help beat cheats and other people seeking to illegally access exam materials ahead of the examinations.

“We put serial numbers to some (test) papers, while we do not do so for others,” he said. He said many innocent people were still falling prey to unscrupulous businesspeople masquerading as sellers of examination.

“We are always on the lookout to protect our candidates,” said Mr Wasanga, whose organisation has been on the spot following allegations of leaks in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

“We are doing everything we can to ensure that we have exam features that cannot be detected by cheats,” he said. At the start of the Form Four exams, there had been numerous claims that some people were selling exam papers.

Six suspects were charged in a Malindi court for gaining access to a math paper last month. About 305,000 candidates have been sitting the KCSE exams which started on October 21 in 5,183 schools countrywide.

In contrast, KCPE exams will be held in 20,290 primary schools. There are 837 distribution centres where the examination papers are stored.

Some 25,083 supervisors, 5,1445 invigilators and 17,902 security officers have been hired to administer the exams. Although the KCPE candidates will be rehearsing on Monday, the examinations begin on Tuesday.