KENYA: There was an unprecedented increase in the number of students who cheated in 2015’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations. The Education ministry has cancelled the KCSE 2015 results of 5,101 students. Releasing the 2015 KCSE examination results on Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said there was about a 70 percent rise in the number of cheating cases witnessed compared to 2014 (2,975 cases of cheating were recorded in 2014).
“We had an unprecedented rise of exam irregularities in 2015. I apologise to the public for them,” Matiang’i said, adding “I will ensure it will not happen again. Let us all be responsible.” He also commended Isiolo county for not having any cases of cheating.
Only Isiolo of all 47 counties had no cases of cheating with Nairobi, Makueni and Meru at the opposite end of the spectrum; boasting the highest number of cheats.
Given the high number of cases, Matiang’i said the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) would not cancel the results of schools with cases of cheating “wholesale.” Instead, he said, the council in collaboration with the Ministry of Education would be setting up a secretariat to address the concerns of those whose results had been cancelled. “The secretariat that has been set up will address all queries regarding exam irregularities because our aim is to eliminate them,” he said.
Matiang’i noted that a third of those who sat the exam have qualified for university. He said this was a 31.52 per cent improvement from 2014.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion said the figures were hardly surprising given candidates in public schools missed about a month of learning when their teachers went on strike in September last year. “This is the reason we insisted on the exams being postponed to allow us to properly prepare the candidates. But as usual, the ministry was a know-it-all and didn’t want to be told.”
Wilson Sossion also said children should be given clemency, not punished, for cheating. “Cases of cheating should be reviewed. We must not punish the students, for cheating is a societal problem that needs to be addressed. Punish the actual culprits,” he said.
He said the fact that one percent of the 522,870 candidates who sat their KCSE exams in 2015 felt it was better to cheat and risk getting caught than make an honest effort and fail, was indicative of a larger societal problem and that teachers should not be blamed.
KCSE Results 2015 by SMS:
In SMS system need to send your Index number to the number given by the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. For this SMS you will charged using the service provider charges, it is very simple method for fetching results. Send your Index number to 22252 for Safaricom, Airtel and Orange networks.
KCPE – RESULT SLIPS:
A total of 525,802 students sat the KCSE exam in 2015 compared to 485,547 in 2014. They can send their index numbers to 22252 for their results.