2022 KCSE results: Parliamentary committee receives explosive report on exam cheating

More doubt has been cast at the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination results in a public hearing in Machakos County conducted by the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Education.

The committee, investigating alleged cheating in the 2022 exams, received an explosive report by the Kenya Union of Post Primary School Teachers (KUPPET) Machakos branch.

The union claims there was massive exam cheating and both the Ministry of Education and the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) failed to deliver a credible examination.

"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)," said Musembi Katuku KUPPET Executive Secretary Machakos.

According to KUPPET, in as much as schools improve, it should be gradual and must reflect a normal curve.

In their first case, 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 2022, an exam that was sat for only a few months later and all students in the school transitioned to university.

In a similar manner, KUPPET claims that 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.

The Teachers Union report also indicates that an analysis of results of some schools with stellar performance did not reflect a natural curve.

A case in point is Nyambaria Boys High School which was the top school nationally. The report says in the 2021 KCSE results the school had a mean score of 9.308 but in the 2022 KCSE results the mean score jumped to 10.897.

At the St. Gonzaga-Gonza Isoge Secondary School the 2022 results indicate that all 85 students scored between A minus and B plain.

The report further indicates that KNEC failed in its mandate, as the union claims that exam papers leaked even before they got to the examination containers and examination materials were circulating online.

At the same time, they claim that the Ministry of Education gave the examination a clean bill of health with not a single case of cheating being reported, unlike previous years.

The committee maintained that the KSCE certificate has been placed too highly which could be a contributor to the cheating menace.

"There is a lot of premium placed on the certificate and this motivates a lot of cheating, other exams are not leaked," Julius Meli, chair of the Education Committee, said.

He however noted that some of those entrusted with exam management do not do their jobs as they should.

"The officers managing exams take it casually and do not report cases of examination cheating," he said.

The committee continues its fact-finding mission with Nyamira and Mombasa Counties being their next stops.