Basic Education Principal Secretary Dr Belio Kipsang on Monday, December 5, announced changes in administration of national examinations.
The national exams that were affected by the new changes include Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
Dr Kipsang was speaking at Westlands Sub County, Nairobi County when he was opening an exam secure storage container containing KCSE papers.
The PS decried that the previous administration had militarized exam administration.
“When I was in school examination booklets were brought and distributed by our teachers.”
“We need to go back to that system where we do not have police officers providing a round the clock security of national examinations,” Kipsang announced.
The veteran PS announced that it is only in education sector where stakeholders worked under watchful eye of the police department.
“Doctors and nurses are not accompanied by police officers to the theatre so we should not have officers accompanying teachers in distribution and invigilation of exams,” the PS noted.
Kipsang however challenged education managers to prove that they can be trusted with such noble task noting that the exams were of great importance to the country.
“No one should be worried when exam papers are at the hands of education managers and it is up to them to show Kenyans that they can handle materials which are of importance to this country,” he remarked.
The PS noted that previous administration had put exam storage containers as security facilities to curb exam irregularities but going forward that was going to change.
“The containers should be solely used as storage facilities but not because we have a trust deficit.”
“Going forward we will change the narrative that we do not trust our teachers and start using the containers as storage facilities instead of security watch points,” Kipsang announced.
In 2017, the then Education Cabinet Secretary declared 'military precision' for national exams, warning cheats of stringent measures. Since then, police officers became the face of KCPE and KCSE administration, through Matiangi and his successor Prof George Magoha were castigated for militarisation of the exercise.
