TSC warns teachers on exam leakages

Teachers have been warned against leaking the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination. 

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said the exams are getting exposed earlier than the stipulated time. 

“When the exams are picked up at 6am, some of these individuals open the examination earlier than the time stipulated by the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) and they take pictures. Some of them have been apprehended and since then you haven’t heard of any further exposures,” Dr Macharia said. 

She spoke on Tuesday during the opening of the KCSE examination container at Kisauni in Mombasa, noting that security agencies are on high alert. 

Dr Macharia said TSC will take disciplinary action against teachers who are involved in examination malpractices. 
“We cannot allow errant teachers to taint the lives of our children,” she added. 

Meanwhile, Dr Macharia said TSC has trained 229,000 teachers on the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). 

“We have been doing it progressively as we go on to the upper grades. In April we are training 60,000 teachers for junior secondary,” she said. 

“I can assure the public that teachers are ready for the implementation of CBC and we shall continue training them progressively.”

She also said colleges have started training teachers on CBC. 

“When we recruit them, we won't have to retrain them, but we shall continue retraining the ones we have employed,” she said.
She assured education stakeholders that the government will employ more teachers to curb shortages. 

But she said the money allocated by the Treasury for hiring additional teachers this financial year is insufficient.

TSC received only enough to recruit 5,000 teachers against the current shortage of 100,000, she said.

The deficit, she added, is felt countrywide and is not confined to the Coast region, especially in Kilifi, as it was claimed by MPs and others.

The leaders accused TSC of discriminating against the county in teacher allocation, something they said led to poor performance in the

Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.

“The teacher shortage is widespread, and Kilifi is not exceptional. We are trying the best we can,” she said. 

“We have tried to recruit interns and the normal permanent and pensionable teachers, but the government gives us a budget only to employ 5,000 teachers. When you have over 100,000 teachers less, that is a drop in the ocean,” she said.

Dr Macharia said the distribution of teachers in primary and secondary schools depends on need.

“We try to distribute them equitably all over the country. In primary schools, (20 new teachers will be hired in each county),” she said.

TSC is also waiting for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to release the new mapping of hardship areas so that teachers in those areas can get relevant allowances.

The last mapping was done a few years ago and needed to be updated.

Kilifi County Commissioner Kutswa Olaka warned education officers, teachers and security personnel against engaging in examination malpractices.

“We will not accept any incidents that involve examination cheating in Kilifi county,” he said.

Last Thursday, a student at Takaungu Secondary School was found with a mobile phone and arrested.

County DCI boss Geoffrey Kathurima said five invigilators, one supervisor, the centre’s manager and two security officers were charged in a Shanzu court and were replaced.