Results for 5,101 candidates who sat the 2015 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination have been cancelled due to exam irregularities.
Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, while releasing the results today, said irregularities were 70 per cent higher than the previous year’s. Dr Matiang’i said, however, the entire results in the affected examination centres will not be cancelled in revised rules which will see the individual candidates bear the brunt. The irregularities took place in 505 centres country wide.
Only Isiolo County did not record any cases of exam irregularities, with the highest numbers being experienced in Nairobi, Makueni and Meru Counties. “A secretariat will be set up at the Education Ministry to guide candidates whose results have been cancelled,” said Dr Matiang’i. The secretariat will be open from 8am to 5pm every day and the team will explain to the candidates how their results were cancelled.
Candidates, parents and guardians can send the short code number to 22252 to receive the results on their mobile phones. Teachers unions expressed their dissatisfaction with the move to cancel exam results, laying the blame on Kenya National Examinations Council and the Education Ministry for failure to curb leakages.
Massive irregularities
“It is unfair to cancel the results of candidates due to exam irregularities, students don’t set exams,” said KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion. He added that the responsibility of exam irregularities rests solely with the examination council. The examination was conducted following eight weeks of teachers’ strike that resulted from dispute over payment of 50-60 per cent pay hike.
The Cabinet Secretary will be holding a briefing later today where he will field questions from the media and give more details on the results. A total of 525,802 sat their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams last year. This is an 8.3 per cent increase from 485,547 the previous year.
On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Education said it was concerned about the results, given the massive irregularities reported during the examinations. “The examination was characterised by a lot of cheating. We saw it, heard about it and read about it,” said committee chairman Daniel Karaba during a meeting with Dr Matiang’i on Tuesday. (with reporting from STANDARD and NATION)
Leave a comment