Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i has announced new measures that his ministry has taken to safeguard against exam cheating.
The 1.6 million candidates set to take the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams will not have to write their personal details on their answer sheets.
According to Dr Matiang'i the candidates will find their answer sheets already printed with their full names, a coloured passport photograph, index numbers, school names and school codes.
Sources at the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) have conveyed that the new features will prevent impostors from sitting for exams on behalf of the registered candidates.
Multiple choice answer sheets, mostly used by the Primary School candidates, will also be marked by new, more sophisticated scanners.
Ministry officials revealed that the scanners have failed in the past due to illegible writing on the scripts resulting in manual marking which increases the chances of errors and cheating.
"This will no longer be the case because the new scanners are sophisticated and will be effective during marking," a ministry official conveyed.
KCSE candidates will not be provided with extra answer booklets and will be required to only write their answers on the provided spaces on the question papers.
The Education CS stated that no cases of leaked exam papers have been reported so far, asserting that the exams will continue as planned.
The KCSE exam is set to be held from October 23rd to November 29th, while KCPE has been scheduled to take place between November 1st to November 3rd.
Read More: Matiang'i Makes New Announcement on 2017 KCPE and KCSE Exams
