Iria defies Matiang’i order, says exam papers to have county logo, his name

Murang’a Governor Mwangi wa Iria has said he will not heed to a directive to cancel exams bearing the county’s logo and his name.

Mr Wa Iria said if he withdraws the county exams, parents will be forced to shoulder the burden as they used to in the past.

Speaking during Mashujaa Day celebrations at General Kago stadium in Kangema, he said that he will not allow the exams to be cancelled as the county had been paying for them for the last four years.

In 2013, the county government standardized all the zonal primary exams to address falling standards of education.

He said schools in the county used to conduct over 30 exams before they came up with the harmonized county examination.

It was one of the strategies to help towards improvement of academic standards after a decade of posting negative results in primary school exams.

“I will not burden my residents again and whoever came up with that directive should know that as the governor I will not follow it,” he added.

He reiterated that the county government had taken the responsibility of paying for the exams thus saving the parents over Sh70 million.

‘I will only stop printing the county exams if the education CS who issued the directive will cover the total cost of producing the exams but not my people,” he charged.

Last week, Murang’a county director of education Leonard Kirimi had said they had discussed and agreed with the county government to cancel the exams.

Mr Kirimi said the exams were bearing the county logo and the governor’s name but he was quick to note that they stopped printing after the directive by education CS Dr Fred Matiang’i.

He added that the county had not printed this term’s exams clarifying that a copy of exam paper being shared on social media was for last term.

‘We don’t supervise the county governments but we discussed and are in agreement that there will be no mocks that are centrally set for this term after the directive,” he said last week.