Scandal of KCPE test lifted from published book

Teachers have raised serious concerns on the credibility of the just-concluded Standard Eight national exams after it emerged that nearly half of the questions in the English Language paper had been lifted from two books and a test that had been sold to a number of schools in February.

An analysis by Nation yesterday revealed that the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) lifted an entire section from a Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam prediction paper that was set and sold to schools by Distinction Educational Publishers.

The same test appears in Distinction KCPE English, a book published by the same company, raising queries on Knec’s attention to detail in setting exams.

Key words omitted

The title is not among the course books approved by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, but is bought and used by schools that can afford it.

In KCPE Prediction Cloze Test — the section that was lifted — candidates were given a passage that had some key words omitted for them to fill to test their language skills.

In the KCPE test done on Monday, candidates were given the same test to choose the best alternative from the given choices.

The section in question carried 15 marks — a substantial amount in a national exam that determines secondary school admissions.

The Nation has established that several schools across the country, the majority of them private, bought and administered the KCPE prediction exam in February, giving them an advantage over their public counterparts that could not afford the tests.

But their head start didn’t stop there. The comprehension section of the same English paper, question 39 to 50 with 11 marks, had also been lifted from another book with answers, Key English, Volume 2, authored by A.S. Sandhu.

This title, too, is not among the course books the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development approved for schools.

The revelations came a day after the KCPE tests ended, prompting sharp reactions from teachers and other education stakeholders who now want answers from Knec.

“This is a national exam, which is supposed to take care of all learners, regardless of whether [or not] they’re from private or public schools.

How can Knec lift content from a best-selling book?” a teacher who spoke to the Nation in confidence posed.

Another teacher said the exam gave an advantage to several schools that bought and administered the prediction exams in February and to those that were using Mr Sandhu’s book.

“When you see such kind of an exam, it raises the issue of credibility on the part of Knec,” he said.

Other teachers said they were wondering if Knec contracted the publishers of the books and their examiners to set the English paper.

Teachers of English, who spoke to Nation, said the Cloze Test and the comprehension section are meant for spontaneity and should not, ideally, be lifted from content learners have already been exposed to.

“These sections are meant to test learners’ competence in language skills and grammar,” a teacher said.

An English examiner told the Nation that subject panels of members from Knec, the Education ministry and universities set the tests.

“They set many different questions, which are later moderated for quality. What happened in the KCPE paper is laziness of the highest order,” she said.

“For that Cloze Test section, they are supposed to develop their own original content. It’s meant to test whether the learners have transferred the language skills learnt in the classroom and not to regurgitate what they have crammed.”

Distinction Educational Publishers Managing Director Henry Onyonka said they also learned after the exams were done that Knec had lifted the passage from their book.

“If Knec lifted content from our books and prediction papers, we don’t have any business with them. Our books have been in the market for the past three years,” he said.

Mr Onyonka said the company sets the KCPE prediction papers from their books to prepare candidates for their final exams.

Beyond reproach

The director also said he had also noted similar questions in the Social Studies paper, among other subjects.

“This is not an uncommon incident as in the past years, teachers always set exams from past papers and revision books,” he said.

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers secretary-general Akelo Misori said setting of national exams should be beyond reproach and fair to all candidates.

“Even though exams are set from learning materials available for learners, for Knec to have similar questions to a previous predicted paper makes the whole process incredible,” he said.

His Kenya National Union of Teachers counterpart Wilson Sossion said exam predictions, especially for language papers, should not have similar content with the Knec exams.

“When a similar passage is predicted and it appears in the Knec exams, then it shows there was leakage,” he said. “Credibility and reliability of our National Exams is terribly tarnished!”

When Nation sent sample questions to Knec acting Chief Executive Officer Mercy Karogo yesterday morning, she said she would give an official “expert response”.

She, however, had not responded by the time Nation went to press.

When he spoke after the last KCPE paper was done on Wednesday, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said no exam malpractices were reported in the exams.

The CS also warned that schools that will be found to have cheated will face dire consequences.