Do you remember that jittery feeling you got when the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination results were announced? Or the number of phone calls from friends and relatives calling to inquire how many marks you scored?
Cabinet Secretary of Education, Amina Mohamed is currently announcing the 2018 KCPE results at the Star of the Sea Primary School in Mombasa County. This year’s exam marked the third year the Ministry launched deliberate measures to end the cheating menace in the country.
Speaking in Mombasa county, Amina Mohamed said that her Ministry was focused on improving systems to seal all loopholes that cheating cartels would normally exploit. The CS added that this year’s KCPE exam was one of the most level playing fields in the country’s history saying that the Ministry managed to completely wipe out examination cheating.
Amina Mohamed assured the country that none of the nine papers administered in this years’s examination were leaked terming the results of the 2018 KCPE as ‘a pure reflection of hard work.’
Speaking at a fundraiser at PCEA church in Gachororo village in Juja Constituency, President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday confirmed the credibility of this year’s exam saying that there was very little cheating.
“There was very little cheating or abuse during this year’s exam and I thank the parents, teachers and candidates. We want to congratulate all those who contributed into making the exams a success,” said the President.
CS Amina Mohamed attributed the laudable achievements to the involvement of most government agencies in the monetary exercise.
The Education Ministry confirmed that a total of 1,052,364 candidates sat for the KCPE 2018 examination, 527,294 (50.1%) being boys and the other 525,070 (49.9%) girls.
Although the Ministry seems to have dealt with the cheating menace, the 2018 KCPE exam also had it’s fair share of drama. The country witnessed an increase in the number of cases of teenage births that were reported in the KCPE exams as a total number of 30 candidates gave birth during the exam while others were rescued while found cohabiting with men.
While quality assurance & standards officers at the Ministry of Education were asked to conduct investigations as to why the rate of teenage pregnancies was so high, CS Amina Mohamed today called upon parents, teachers and the community to take proper care of their children to avoid teenage pregnancies.
Speaking about defilement, the CS said that the law on defilement is clear and no one is above it adding that it is a complex issue that her ministry is working on with all relevant government agencies.
Do you believe that the 2018 KCPE examination was completely free and fair?