KNEC fights remarking of KCPE exams to protect integrity

The Kenya National Examination Council says that allowing examination scripts of last year’s KCPE results of a school to be remarked by other people would compromise the integrity of the tests it administers.

Through lawyer Geoffrey Obura, KNEC told a court that allowing all the examination papers to be remarked, other institutions from across the country will be asking for the same.

Mr Obura said it would be wrong to take the duties of the examinations body and give them to parents and teachers.

He was submitting on Tuesday in a case where parents of Nyali Primary School and Kindergarten in Mombasa are challenging last year’s Kenya certificate of primary education (KCPE) exams results of their children.

The 89 parents are seeking for a mandatory injunction compelling KNEC to avail the examination scripts of the children who sat KCPE last year at the institution.

Mr Obura further told Justice Eric Ogola that the petition by the parents against KNEC was defective and misconceived.

“The respondent (KNEC) acted to the issues raised in terms of nine candidates,” said Mr Obura adding that the examination body had received complaints from the institution and rectified them.

He added that there is no mention of any child or candidate whose issue was raised by the parents and was not addressed by the examinations body.

KNEC further noted that the strict regime under which the examinations were conducted in 2016 was bound to have an effect on the results.

Through an affidavit of Mr Wilson Chelimo, an acting deputy director responsible for examination management, it contends that the Education Act does not entitle candidates to have access to their examinations scripts once marked.

AUDIT RESULTS

The parents, through lawyer Macmillan Jengo told the court that they are not asking for a remarking of examination but an audit or verification of the results.

“We are asking KNEC to re-look at the exams papers and check whether marking was done correctly in the presence of the school’s principal and some teachers who are examiners,” said Mr Jengo.

He argued that the end results of the process of verification, if mistakes are noticed will have to be rectified.

The parents want scripts provided for checking of marked answer scripts of their children to ensure validity, reliability and accuracy of allocation of marks.

According to the petitioners, the marks awarded to their children do not reflect their ability or the school’s general performance over the years.

“The petitioners contend that for transparency and accountability in the process, verification and adjudication of captured marks be done,” read their petition.

An interested party in the case Mr Okiya Omtatah said there were anomalies in last year’s examination papers.

Mr Omtatah told the court that there was no due diligence carried out on how the examination was conducted.

“There is no law which says examination scripts cannot be given back to the pupils, refusal by the respondents to allow access to information required by the petitioners is not anchored in law,” said Mr Omtata.

Judgement will be delivered on May 22.