Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, on Tuesday, October 1, unearthed a sinister plot to cheat in the upcoming examinations.
A total of 315 schools were mentioned in a shocking expose of how an elaborate cartel comprising of parents, Ministry of Education officials and Teachers Service Commission officers had engineered a way to bypass the strict security checks around the upcoming national exams.
A total of 190 primary schools and 125 secondary schools spread out across 31 counties were placed under investigation, The Standard reported.
The counties affected are Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi, Machakos, Meru, Marsabit, Isiolo, Makueni, Nairobi, Turkana, West Pokot, Trans Nzoia, Bomet, Uasin Gishu, Kericho, Nandi, Kajiado, Nakuru, Baringo, Busia, Bungoma and Kakamega.
Undercover KNEC operatives uncovered the various ways the secret cartel were planning on cheating their way through the examinations.
According to the report, parents in the schools under investigations had contributed Ksh 5,000 per candidate to purchase examination materials.
Once that was done, regional officials in the ministry and TSC had then conspired to retain examination officers in the same schools they invigilated last year.
They were expected to use their familiarity at the various centres to allow them to access tests before the official examination dates.
According to the report some of the secondary school principals had planned on retaining various subject teachers in schools during the tests, whom would then pass one information to the students whose parents had coughed up the mandatory payment.
KNEC Acting CEO Mercy Karogo stated that her security chiefs were on high alert, and cautioned against any form of cheating.
On his part, CS Magoha affirmed that the report regarding how some unscrupulous cartels are keen to infiltrate this year’s tests, had been brought to his attention.
“Some of these people think that because I am not the Knec chairperson things have changed. Tell them that I am now in charge of everything and I am closely monitoring (things). Examinations will not leak,” he told the Daily Nation.
