Mr John, a teacher at a primary school in Kisumu recently commented that “They no longer pass the examinations as they used to do.”
Annual national examinations KCPE for Class Eight and KCSE for Form Four students start in a fortnight.
The candidates themselves, parents, and the government are firing on all cylinders to succeed.
Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Prof George Magoha, who is the former chairman of the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), says no exam will be seen before the time it is supposed to be seen. Brilliant.
Dr Fred Matiang’i, the CS in charge of security and government coordination, says the exams will remain under lock and key. The exams are safe and will be credible, is Dr Matiang’i’s assurance. Beautiful.
The government officials are this candid because there is a group of unscrupulous people that is bent on leaking exams without thinking about the ruins they leave in their wake.
When a cabal of greedy people plays around with the lives of the masses with abandon, the country perishes.
For Christians, the Bible says in chapter 4 of Hosea that people are destroyed because they lack knowledge.
Those who are not knowledgeable see nothing wrong with cheating in examinations. It is time to stop them, once and for all.
Examination cheating is so widespread that in Ethiopia, this year, the government disabled internet to ensure the tests are credible. Great effort.
When examinations are bungled a generation is lost; so, Kenya must be brave and uproot the culture of leaking, buying, and illegally distributing examinations.
It is commendable that the government is fighting to restore faith in the examination system.
Under their watch, exam cheats found it hard to breathe in 2016, when the total tally of A-Plain grade dropped drastically to 141 when previously one school could get more As.
Then, Matiang’i was the Education CS while Magoha was chairing KNEC. They were accused of all manner of things and the duo and their teams could have got certain areas wrong, but the message sank in: exam cheats have no place in Kenya.
This is the war that should continue until dignity is restored to the national examinations. Merit, as always, will place individuals in their right corners, jobs, and rungs in the society. Young people, the bulk of whom are sitting these papers, ought to be helped to appreciate the beauty of trying, swotting, sweating, and overcoming. Then celebrating.
Graduates of whichever level also celebrate, remembering the struggle they went through to clinch their First Class, Second Upper, master’s and PhDs. It is uplifting when you remember the obstacles conquered.
But there is something even more important. That exam results should correspond with the knowledge and skills acquired. The knowledge helps one to attain dreams and become a better human being when they leave school more capable and ready to serve the nation. Not half-baked.
Those who genuinely pass exams are mentally swifter and stronger with ability and agility to guide the rest to grow as future leaders and doers of the actual work, thus boosting productivity.
However, bosses who doubt their own abilities are insecure they keep fidgeting while their faces seem too maiden to be that of an adult, and too old to be that of a maiden.
Strangely, there are a few school managers who, it is alleged, collude with examination officers to cheat.
When exams lose meaning, people also lose aspirations and opportunities while the economy sags under the weight of dishonesty.
Those who think unearned ‘good grades’ will deliver the few available jobs and other opportunities don’t know they are making the situation worse. Visionlessness kills.
There is a need to be furiously angry at this cartel that hurts a whole generation by killing genuine competition.
Examinations are the beginning of a candidate’s adventure since they help in exploiting the limits of human ability.
So, candidates sitting different papers should not hold back but dare to dream and take exams as a healthy process necessary for scholarly growth.
From today, may it dawn on those taking exams, including those sitting the KCPE and KCSE this year and later that these tests ought to contribute to building a firmer base for Kenya. The economy, the country, and her people deserve only the best.
May all the stakeholders insist on credibility and honesty.
