Suspend Form One Selection Immediately; Education CS Machogu asked
Pressure continues to mount over the form one 2024 selection exercise for the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, KCPE, candidates.
An education lobby group, Elimu Bora Group Wants CS Machogu to immediately put on hold the selection exercise until concerns over the KCPE 2023 results are addressed.
The group has asked Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu to suspend with immediate effect the Form One selection process until an independent evaluation of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) 2023 results has been done and validated.
The lobby group says the raised concerns need to be investigated thoroughly.
“There appears to be a clear violation of the rights of the pupils whose results have been tampered with and continuation of processing of the same without an independent validation process may further aggravate the situation,” the group said via a press statement.
The rights group has joined parents who have moved to court to stop the ongoing form 1 selection and seek the restoration of integrity to National Examinations.
According to the Elimu group, issues such as the delayed exam results through code 40054 and its failure for more than four hours were a big red flag.
Parents have raised a red flag over the credibility of the released results.
In their concerns, the parents raised such complaints as: some students receiving results on subjects they never did like Kenya Sign Language.
There have also been inconsistencies in the grading system used by Knec with students who had sat for the same subjects getting different grades despite scoring same marks.
The group is calling out the Kenya National Examination Council(KNEC) for failing to take immediate action to address the complaints, as well as dismissing the concerns of parents.
“That even though the KNEC has acknowledged that more than 130 cases have been lodged, there does not seem to be a clear mechanism of submitting these claims neither is there a clear process of having the same resolved in a transparent and open manner,” adds the group.
The group has asked Education Ministry’s top officials to take responsibility over the mistakes and inconsistencies.
“They (CS Machogu, KNEC CEO David Njengere)
owe candidates, their teachers, and parents a duty of care to ensure that the exams are well handled, correct results tendered and that cases of mischief are dealt with in accordance with the law. These public officials slept on the job and should take full responsibility for the mess,” they add.
Knec has defended the case where all candidates in one school scored 75% in the Science test adding that it was a possibility in multiple choice examinations.
The Council has asked all the candidates to collect manual result slips from their primary schools. The candidates have a 30-day window to raise queries and any mistakes through the sub-county director of education.
The selection exercise for form one 2024 is ongoing with placement results expected in a couple of days.
