Exam cheating: Education CS Julius Ogamba pushes for trial by special courts

Education Cabinet Secretary CS Julius Ogamba has warned individuals and groups with intentions to cheat in the ongoing Form Four national exams that they will be prosecuted.

Mr Ogamba on Sunday said cheating in the national examination is a serious crime and urged Kenyans to help the government in fighting it.

The CS, who was on a tour of Kisii and Nyamira counties at the weekend for the first time after his appointment, warned teachers that anyone caught cheating would be blacklisted.

 “My ministry will work closely with the criminal justice system, to create special courts, which will handle specific cases relating to national examination cheating. We have requested to have special court sittings so that cases of exam malpractices are heard and determined within three months,” Mr Ogamba said.

He said learners should be left to write the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education tests, which started on October 22, on their own since each one of them can fit somewhere depending on the grades they attain.

“We want to raise all-round citizens, and it doesn’t matter how many 'As' a school produces,” he said, adding that the promotion of head teachers would be based on other parameters such as how well they manage schools.

“Multi-agency teams have been put in place to ensure that the examinations go on smoothly,” the CS said.

Mr Ogamba asked stakeholders in the sector to support government initiatives for the interest of the Kenyan public.

“Let’s not dismember the education sector. If you mess up a country’s education, everything else will collapse,” he said.

The CS said that the government was doing everything possible to ensure that the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) succeeds.

This includes the construction of classrooms in primary schools across the country to accommodate learners who will proceed to Grade 9 next year.

He said through support from the World Bank, already 3,500 classrooms had been completed and another 7,500 are ongoing.

“We have also engaged NGCDF to help us construct another 5,000 classrooms,” he said.

The CS said the government had decentralised the construction of the classrooms so that they are of the same standards and cost.

He asked head teachers to ensure prudent utilisation of resources sent to schools so that learners can have a conducive learning environment.

“This will also encourage the government to allocate more resources to the schools,” he said.

The CS said the government had also dispatched textbooks for Grade 9 learners to be delivered to schools before reopening next year.

“Head teachers should be ready to receive the books and submit returns to the ministry, to enable us to know where there are gaps or where they received in excess,” he said.

CS Ogamba said some capitation had also been sent to schools and head teachers should utilise the same to make desks for learners.

“I ask head teachers to work harmoniously with members of Boards of Management (BoM),” he said.

He said the government cannot move Junior Secondary School (JSS) learners to existing secondary schools since this would go against the public that overwhelmingly said that they be domiciled in primary schools.

“The presidential working party on education conducted public participation where 93% of Kenyans said that JSS should be domiciled in primary schools,” he said.

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