Sossion says 2016 KCSE results were manipulated

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion has claimed that the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination results released last month by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i were cooked.

Speaking to journalists at the Knut headquarters in Nairobi on Sunday, Mr Sossion, who is also the secretary-general of the Trade Unions Congress of Kenya (TUC-K), said the results were suspect and appeared to have been manipulated.

Mr Sossion and other TUC-K officials demanded a forensic audit on the results and the processes to ascertain the authenticity of what he termed “a stage-managed process which could end up becoming the biggest scandal in the country’s education sector”.

He accused some ministry officials of having been in a hurry to dramatically display that the war on cheating in examinations was being won.

“We have not argued from the blue. We have generated a report which all of you have. It contains comparison from last year and this year in terms of performance.

"Let other groups generate their reports, then we see and compare. The ministry has been quiet for three days and that means they are guilty,” he said.

'MESSED-UP' PROCESS

Mr Sossion insisted that an independent forensic audit by an international organisation should be commissioned to investigate the matter. He also called on people to stop politicising the issue and instead look critically into the matter.

“When this process is audited and all work is done, we will get to the bottom of everything and so people should stop politicising a critical issue when thousands of children are being destroyed,” said the Knut boss.

He said those responsible for the “messed-up process should be held liable and not use the rubber stamp of the President as a shield or an iron cast to hide under”.

“Somebody must be held liable. The ministry may soon turn into a one-man show and this has to be corrected,” said Mr Sossion.

Mr Sossion also wondered how results were processed just four days after the last paper was marked, warning that a fishy game could have been at play.

He said the subject performance for 2016 was not declared, which is a departure from 2015 and that this failure, coupled with the failure to release THE institutional and regional performance report, adds to his misgivings about the entire process and the results.

“The figures for 2015 were declared to us in Caledonia subject by subject. This one at Shimo la Tewa, even the Kenya National Examinations Council chief executive did not speak.

"Why did the minister fail to release the results of every subject? Is it that there was no time, is it that he did not have that data, is it that the data was so incriminating?” Mr Sossion wondered.

ESTABLISHED CREDIBILITY

He also poked holes in English performance, where not even a single student scored a straight A, terming the results a sham.

“We have established credibly and in the report that one uniform grading system was applied in all the subjects and that is why there are more A's in humanities while sciences and languages are condemned, and that is giving wrong figures and result,” he said.

“We have travelled globally and Kenyan students are some of the most competent students in English language, whether in British or American universities. Then somebody wants to tell us that students cannot score A's in English. Surely!” said Mr Sossion.

He also wondered how more than 85 per cent of students can fail an examination for which they have been adequately prepared.

He added that the high number of students who failed could lead to a national security issue.

Only 141 candidates managed to score a mean grade of A-plain in last year’s examination, a shocking drop from 2,636 candidates who attained the grade in the 2015 KCSE.

“Let Kenyans talk and decide, because the children do not belong to us as individuals. They belong to this country. You are immobilizing, condemning and denying them access to opportunities that exist. Let the executive arm of the government react to this' in any case, it is even a national security issue,” said Mr Sossion.

GENDER DISCRIMINATION

He added that the results were promoting gender discrimination.

“Is it natural that you have 50,000 girls with C+ and above and boys drastically reduce to 38,000, statistically compared to last year, which was a vice-versa?” asked Sossion.

TUC-K deputy Secretary-General Charles Mukhwaya reiterated Mr Sossion’s stand, saying the results should be recalled and reprocessed to weed out the glaring anomalies that have been witnessed.

“We are alarmed, in as much as we want to support the CS for streamlining the education system, by the manner in which KCSE results were handled," Dr Mukhwaya said.

"We feel like something was not right and we are calling for the results to be recalled and reprocessed and if there were anomalies, which we suspect there were, they will be unearthed.”

On Sunday, Cord leader Raila Odinga also waded unto the matter just days after he hailed Education Cabinet Secretary for credible reforms in the education sector.

Mr Odinga described the results as abnormal, adding that it was a departure from the normal curve that measures intelligence and was therefore difficult to believe.

“This is the first time we have had such a massive failure at the secondary school since 1963,” the Cord leader stated.