Good luck, candidates
What you need to know:
- National examinations are important yardsticks to establish who goes on with higher education and who drops by the wayside. But if the process is flawed, nobody will ever know for sure who deserved to be admitted to university.
Almost half a million candidates sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination from Tuesday, capping a four-year period during which they presumably dedicated themselves to studies so that they could reach this milestone in their lives.
It is a pity that the exam is starting under a cloud, with concerns being expressed that some papers may have leaked and are on sale.
So far, the allegations are unsubstantiated but the fact that one person has already been arrested with exam papers and no one has denounced their authenticity is extremely worrying.
National examinations are important yardsticks to establish who goes on with higher education and who drops by the wayside. But if the process is flawed, nobody will ever know for sure who deserved to be admitted to university.
That is why the Kenyan National Examinations Council must strive to come up with fool-proof safeguards, even if it means getting people from outside the profession to set the papers, and minimising the number of those who actually handle the material until the exam dates.
That way, if there is a leak, it will be easy to know where it occurred.
In the meantime, we wish all the candidates the best of luck.
