This archive report was first published on 10 November 2019.
As the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams continue, a worrying trend has emerged: brazen and audacious cheating methods that threaten to undermine the integrity of the exams.
According to reports, scores of exam cheats have been nabbed in various centres, with some taken to court to answer to criminal offences. The authorities must change strategy faster than those planning to cheat in the tests.
One of the most alarming cases was in Kisii County, where 11 suspects were arrested and charged for impersonation. The suspects, including university students and unemployed trained teachers, went to write exams for others at a centre for private candidates, defying security checks only to be caught by a discerning officer.
Another shocking case was in Migori County, where teachers at a school masqueraded as cooks, attempting to facilitate cheating by getting question papers, working out answers, and passing them to candidates in the toilets.
Even more brazen was the case of a teacher in Wajir who shamelessly worked out answers to a practical subject and put them on the chalkboard.
These cases highlight the changing tactics in examination cheating, which have become more daring and less concerned with the strict monitoring in place.
Historically, cheating involved selling exam papers in advance to schools, learners, or parents, who would then use them for revision and drilling candidates to get high grades. Some schools and parents even colluded with crooked officials at the Kenya National Examination Council to change and raise candidates' grades after marking at a fee.
However, since 2016, stringent rules have been enforced to curb these tricks, and confidence in national examinations has been restored.
Our concern is the obsession with exam cheating, which seems to be a persistent problem. We urge the authorities to intensify monitoring and enforcement to eliminate cheating in all its manifestations.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and his team have done a good job so far, but challenges remain. We implore candidates to take personal responsibility for their studies and avoid the temptation to cheat.
