The National Assembly Committee on Education on Wednesday, March 22, blew the lid on tricks teachers were employing to earn promotions.
While investigating exam irregularities during the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), Members of Parliament found out that the initiative to cheat on national exams majorly came from the tutors.
The teachers had found a loophole in the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) promotion criterion and they were exploiting it.
“TSC has been promoting teachers based on performance in national examinations.
“Many teachers are tempted to aid malpractices for their students to pass, and as a result, get their promotions,” the committee was told on the rising cases of exam irregularity.
The Committee on Education launched investigations into exam irregularities after some schools recorded a sharp increase in mean grades.
Another revelation made during the investigations was that schools were influencing the deployment of exam supervisors and invigilators.
They manipulated the system to get exam invigilators who would turn a blind eye while the teachers aided the students in doing their KCSE exams.
Nyamira Woman Representative Jerusha Momanyi remarked that the committee would lay ground for radical measures to guide how national examinations are managed.
While supporting Momanyi’s sentiments, Lugari MP Nabwera Nabii remarked, “The general feeling is that there is a problem in our examination management systems.”
The revelation by the Committee came a day after they received a similar report from the Kenya Union of Post Primary School Teachers (KUPPET) Machakos branch.
"It appears that KNEC has not been able to manage examinations effectively in this country and has left their work to the Ministry of Education and Teachers Service Commission (TSC)," KUPPET remarked.
KUPPET remarked that schools should improve on a normal curve, not a sharp increase in grades.
KUPPET pointing out inconsistencies revealed that KUPPET claims that Rigoko Secondary School registered an abnormal improvement curve in its 2022 KCSE results as it had a mean score of 5.728 in 2021 only to jump to 9.0 in 202
Similarly, St. Thomas Moore Riangombe Secondary School had a mean score of 3.7 in the 2021 KSCE and jumped to 7.1 in the 2022 national examination.
