Teachers oppose new exam rules

Primary school heads on Tuesday objected to a government plan to have them take charge of the Standard Eight national examination.

This will throw a spanner in the works in the drive to curb cheating in national tests.

They said they were not prepared to do the work of supervisors and claimed by putting them in charge of examination centres, the Government was trying to have them take the blame in case of cheating.

Kenya National Examinations Council deputy director Ibrahim Mohamud was making a presentation on the headteachers’ new role, when the teachers booed him off the stage.

“Head teachers shall be required to collect question paper packets every morning of the examination from the distribution centre and return the answer scripts and sheets at the end of every examination day to the distribution centre,” said Mr Mohamud. The teachers shouted; “Noo! Noo!”

Undeterred, Mr Mohamud went on: “Specifically, head teachers shall be held directly accountable, responsible and answerable for any examination malpractices that will take place in their schools.” He abandoned his speech and left the dais as the teachers became more hostile.

The official was escorted by the heads association chairman Shem Ndolo out of the Sheikh Zayed children’s Centre where the meeting was taking place.

“He has touched a live wire. We will not allow this. It is like killing us indirectly. Taking papers to exam rooms has always been the work of supervisors with the help of police. In case something happens we will be jailed straight away,” the Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association deputy treasurer Kennedy Kyeva said.

Mr Elias Karanja, a headteacher, accused the examination council of trying to abdicate its responsibility, while his colleague David Ikunza said the security of the tests could not be transferred to school heads.

ADMINISTER EXAMS

“It is not that we do not want to administer exams but let the council allow us to do our jobs as managers of our schools without giving us extra roles,” said Mr Ikunza .

Another headteacher, Ms Alice Mwangi, said teachers would not perform the role of supervisors.

“It is the work of supervisors to collect the examination papers from distribution centres then transport them to schools and administer them. What will they do if we take up their role?” she asked.

She added that most head teachers lived far from examination collection centres and it would be difficult for them to travel to the stations, transport the tests to schools and supervise them.

“If the examinations are brought to the school, we are ready to manage them but we will not collect them from the centres. We are expected to serve parents, students, the community and visitors to the school. We will not agree to shoulder more responsibilities,” she said.

After calm had been restored, Mr Mohamud returned and said he was only relaying a message from the council and that the teachers’ concerns would be taken into consideration.

While announcing the new rules in May, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said in order to rein in teachers who have been helping students to cheat in examinations, school principals would now be in charge of their examination centres, assisted by supervisors.

He said headteachers would take full responsibility and accountability for any examination malpractices that may be reported in their centres.