More than 600 KCSE candidates committed malpractice

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has revealed that 621 Kenyan Secondary School Certificate candidates committed malpractice in the examinations.

He noted that this number represents 0.064 percent. out of 965,501 candidates who took the exams in 2024.

On Friday, Ogamba said the candidates were mainly found with unauthorized written materials, mobile phones, collusion, sharing photos of examination papers on social media and impersonation.

“These cases were reported in 198 out of 10,754 examination centers, representing 1,841% of examination centers,” he said.

“All cases are under investigation and action will be taken against those found guilty of irregularities during the tests.”

Ogamba said the ministry would remain committed to upholding the sanctity of national examinations.

He stated that the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has invited 32,800 examiners in 2024 from 29,876 in 2023 to ensure timely and accurate marking.

Moreover, the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) assessment was already complex.

He said KNEC has since started producing relevant reports that can be shared with schools and students by January 2025.

More than 1.3 million candidates joined KPSE in 32,573 centers, supported by 617 distribution centers.

He said though KPSEA candidates had to endure heavy rains and uncertainty in some parts of the country, no candidate was left behind.

Ogamba said they included 28 brave candidates who sat for the exams in hospital settings.

He praised the multi-agency team administering the exams, which includes officials from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of ICT, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and other stakeholders.

He said officials played a key role in the successful coordination of the examination season.

Ogamba said the government had allocated N65.2 billion for free secondary education, with junior secondary schools receiving N35.3 billion and primary schools receiving N9.36 billion in capital grants.

In addition, he said, P18 billion has been allocated for Grade 9 infrastructure and the construction of 18,000 classrooms across the country, which has already started.

In the first stage, 3,500 classrooms were built, and in the second stage, 7,500 classrooms will be built.

Construction of the second stage has started and will be ready in January 2025.

The implementation of the National Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) is ongoing, supporting the construction of an additional 6,800 classrooms.

In addition, an amount of P1 billion has been allocated to Nairobi County due to unique challenges in infrastructure support.

To support the development of junior secondary schools, Ogamba said over 46,000 trainee teachers have been permanently employed.

In addition, 20,000 more trainees are being recruited and 60,000 primary school teachers have been trained to teach JSS.