Education minister Sam Ongeri stunned the nation yesterday when he revealed a teacher collected Sh810,000 via Mpesa to help students and teachers cheat.
The teacher, he said, was still at large but the CID were investigating the case to have him arrested and charged. Ongeri said cheats were creating new and complicated methods but that ministry is keen to eliminate the vice.
He displayed a sandal used by an unscrupulous student to cheat. The student had listed in ink the answers to a question paper. He decided to keep the name of the student and the examination centre secret.
While priding themselves for having made major strides in curbing exams cheating, Ongeri said a shift in trends had gotten his officers worried.
He said by controlling the interference from outside the school, as a means to curb cheating there has been a shift to collusion within examination centres involving the candidates, teachers and other third parties. He said the trend of these new cheating tactics are developing.
In this year’s examination 335 centres were involved in collusion whose exams will be nullified and education officers involved will be punished. “The Kenya National Examinations Council and my ministry have gone out of their way to try and eliminate all other forms of cheating including impersonation, candidates caught with mobile phones, and those with pre-prepared notes, however it is disturbing that candidates at examination centres have turned to collusion which involves headteachers, supervisors, invigilators, parents and even the community which is difficult to handle unless such leaders embrace integrity,” Ongeri said.
The minister told of a case in which a DEO and a headmaster tried to bribe a supervisor not to report collusion and when she refused she was threatened with death and had to leave the region immediately. He also said head teachers, teachers and supervisors abetted collusion. He further said that candidates had devised new ways to cheat with some even writing answers on sandals and shirts worn in exam rooms.
“We thought that the sandals would be an apparel to prevent them from contracting any infectious diseases while they were walking on contaminated soil but I am afraid to say that this is one of the ingenious ways of colluding where the sandal is riddled with answers,” he said adding that the government will deal with the errant adults who are hell bent to ruin children's future by either participating or allowing them to cheat. Nyeri,Turkana, Laikipia and Busia counties were commented for not having any case of cheating.
Meanwhile a parliamentary select committee on Education chairman Davy Koech called on the education ministry to address teachers shortage and expand infrastructure to improve the quality of education.
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