Thursday, March 22, 2012

Ongeri fails to appear before house committee




Written By:Samson Kitavi/Claire Wanja,    Posted: Wed, Mar 21, 2012
Ongeri has however insisted that the cancellation was in order following what he termed as irregularities
Education minister Sam Ongeri has for the second time failed to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating the cancellation of KCSE results for several students.  
Ongeri was to appear before the house committee on Education led by Mosop MP David Koech Wednesday to shed light on the cancelation of KCSE results of over 2900 candidates on basis of irregularities but did not show up.
He was also expected to respond on the form one selection policy which has raised concerns among stakeholders.
The committee cancelled the meeting after they received information that Ongeri is out of the country on official duties.
The committee however expressed its disappointment on the last minutes turn of events arguing that the minister should have informed the committee on his intended absence two days before.
The probe was necessitated by the recent riots in Garissa town by students whose results were cancelled. Out of the 2,932 students whose results were cancelled, 1600 are from North Eastern region. Ongeri is also expected to respond on the form one selection policy which has raised concerns among stakeholders.
Ongeri has however insisted that the cancellation was in order following what he termed as irregularities.
Elsewhere, candidates preparing to sit for this year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations have up to end of this month to register online.
Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has advised candidates to register early before the March 31 deadline to avoid inconveniences brought about by network congestion.
Announcing the registration deadline, KNEC Chief Executive Officer Paul Wasanga warned that late registrations will be automatically rejected as the online system will not recognize them.
"All examination centres are also advised to keep in safe custody the password used for registration this year since the same password will be used for future registration of candidates," said Wasanga.
The KNEC boss congratulated three KCSE and three KCPE examination centers for their early and successful completion of online registration.
They are KCPE's Maria Immaculata from Kiambu County, Central Juniorate Academy (Trans Nzoia), and David Njenga Memorial (Nakuru).
The KCSE centers are Mt Sinai Academy and Memon High School from Mombasa County, and Marsabit's St Paul Secondary School.
Online registration is one of the measures introduced by KNEC two years ago to curb cheating during examinations. 
Others include the requirement of a birth certificate before a candidate is allowed to register and banning of mobile phones in examination rooms.

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