The Principal Secretary for Basic Education, Dr. Belio Kipsang, announced changes to the implementation of the national exam on Monday, December 5.
The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) are the two national exams affected by the new revision.
Speaking in Westlands Sub-county, Nairobi, Dr Kipsang announced a safe deposit box containing KCSE exam papers.
The PS lamented the militarization of the examination administration during the previous administration.
“When I was in school, pamphlets were brought and distributed by our teachers.”
“We need to go back to a system where we don’t have police officers providing one-hour security for national exams,” Kipsang said.
PS veterans informed that the only stakeholders are in the education sector, which works under the supervision of the police.
“Doctors and nurses don’t accompany the police to the theater, so we don’t have to have officers bring teachers to organize and call for exams,” PS said.
However, Kipsang challenged education leaders to prove that such a noble cause can be trusted, noting the importance of exams to the country.
“No one should worry when the exam papers are in the hands of the education authorities and it is up to them to show Kenyans that they can get the material that is important to this country,” he said.
PS admitted that the previous administration had installed exam storage boxes as a security facility to prevent exam irregularities, but that will change.
The container is only used for storage, but not because we lack confidence. ”
“We’re going to go ahead and change the narrative about not trusting our teachers and start using containers as storage instead of security checkpoints,” Kipsang said.
In 2017, the then education secretary announced “military precision” for national tests and warned of stricter measures against cheating. Since then, the police have been the face of KCPE and KCSE administration, with Matiangi and his deputy, Prof George Magoha, accused of militarizing the exercise.