A total of 27 teachers will face disciplinary action from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over cheating allegations in the 2020-2021 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams. This revelation has been made by Education Cabinet Secretary professor George Magoha.
Magoha says a total of 27 officials were relieved of their various duties as centre managers, supervisors or invigilators over allegations of violating regulations guiding the administration of examinations. Teachers who were involved in the irregularities will face disciplinary action from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
“As a Ministry, we will be presenting the list of teachers believed to be behind some of the examination offences to the TSC for action.” He reported.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the Ministry to crack the whip on teachers who indulge in examinations cheating and leave the candidates alone. Consequently, all the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates who sat the 2020-2021 exams received their results.
This latest development will see the TSC act tough on teachers facing cheating allegations as the government seeks to stem the vice.
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PENALTY FOR EXAMINATION IRREGULARITIES
Apart from disciplinary action from the Commission, the teachers may also face charges in the court of law.
According to the KNEC Act No. 29 of 2012, offences and Penalties stated in Sections 27 to 40 for cases of examination irregularities will apply.
For instance, any person who gains access to examination material and knowingly reveals the contents, whether orally or in writing, to an unauthorized party, whether a candidate or not, will be in violation of Section 27 of the Act and the penalty will be imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or a fine not exceeding two million shillings or both.
Cheating cases
CS Magoha says the KCSE 2020 examinations did not leak and that all attempts to expose examination papers were thwarted in a timely manner in a few centers across the country.
” We experienced a number of cases where examination officials attempted to open the papers with the intention of exposing them to candidates before the actual examinations started. We thwarted these efforts in a few centres countrywide, some of which I released to you during my weekly briefs,” CS Magoha says.
He adds that 37 civilians, including three university students and two businessmen, were arrested for attempting to engage (or assist) in examination irregularities. Also Fifty-three cell phones were confiscated from candidates at examination rooms during the exercise.
During the 2019 KCSE exams, close to 100 mobile phones were collected from various examination centres even as more than 10 impersonators were apprehended in Kisii. They had connived with unscrupulous people to produce fake photo albums to give the impression they were genuinely KNEC registered candidates for KCSE.
In Nairobi’s Eastleigh, 35 mobile phones were collected from a single centre. There were some cases of individuals who were attempting early exposure of examination papers, among other ills.
All those involved in these attempts were apprehended.
And determined to stem examinations irregularities attempts, KNEC still cancelled 1, 309 individual results for candidates from these failed cases of cheating.
The forms of cheating were manifest in the use of mobile phones, carrying unauthorized materials to examination rooms, and collusion.
Of the 1,309 candidates whose results were cancelled, 1,158 engaged in collusion in a bid to cheat in the exam, 101 were found with unauthorised materials in the exam room while 47 were found with mobile phones.
Two candidates will miss their results for impersonation while one other caused disturbance, hence cancellation of their results.
However, the number of cases of irregularities is much lower than the 4,519 cancelled in the 2018 KCSE.
In 2019, a total 658 KCSE results were withheld for routine checks on small details, including accuracy of their names and registration details. These results will be released to candidates as soon as the verification process is completed.
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