NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 23 – The Education Ministry said on Friday that it was helpless in the case of candidates who had paid to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations but whose head teachers failed to register them.
Education Minister Sam Ongeri told Capital News that it was not his ministry’s responsibility to know why 60 students of Nairobi’s Twilight Secondary School were not registered.
“There is no way the examination council will ever know the school has not registered its students. The only people who will appear on their registers are the ones who have been duly registered,” he said.
The students have told Capital News that the owner of the school pocketed their money and allegedly lied to them that he had registered them.
The candidates appealed to the government to make special arrangements to sit the exam, but Mr Ongeri has ruled out such a possibility.
Mr Ongeri said the blame could only be apportioned to the owner of the school who stole the students’ registration money. His remarks raise questions over who is to bear responsibility to ensure that all schools are registered with the government, and to protect students from unscrupulous owners.
The Minister who strongly defended his Ministry said there was enough time for the students and the teachers to confirm if they had been registered.
Though he condemned the act and appealed for immediate action from the police, Mr Ongeri cautioned students, parents and teachers to be on the look out and verify the registration with the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC).
He said it was impossible for KNEC to know who had been registered.
In Kenya, there are district education officers, provincial education officers and many other education authorities supposed to oversee the smooth running of all school registered by the government.
It is also a requirement that all schools must be registered.
24 other candidates in a Rachuonyo North school also found themselves in the same situation.
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