Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has responded to requests regarding the abolishment of prayer days for candidates sitting the national examinations scheduled to begin on March 7.
While addressing journalists in Mombasa County on Thursday, March 2, the CS castigated the Atheists Society in Kenya for writing to him a letter that requested the Ministry to call off prayer days.
He maintained that occasions in schools would go on without interruption, explaining that this was a culture that was adopted years ago. Magoha added that the government had no right to infringe on the faith and beliefs of students.
"Atheists requested me to do away with prayer days and I refused. I am a believer and we must encourage students to pray even before the exams.
Additionally, the CS insisted that the prayer days were only to be done by the schools themselves without inviting members of the public.
He stated that there were some individuals who were waiting to take advantage of the occasion to engage in exam malpractices.
"The public attend the prayers to confuse our students. Prayers are encouraged and the Atheists should not think that we do not know what we are doing. We must continue praying," he stated.
Magoha further noted that the government would keenly monitor social media sites, notably Telegram, over reports that some examination administrators were intending to use the platform to leak exams to students.
He also added that they were considering changing the time schedule for opening the exam containers to prevent cases of exam leakage.
"We will decide whether we can bring back the time from 0600 hrs to 0630 hrs. That will reduce the time used by crooks who intend to open the papers ahead of schedule.
"I want to warn those centre managers who will be tempted to open the papers and share them via Telegram. We are waiting for you and if you do not love your career just attempt it. We are watching you," he cautioned.
