According to documents from KNEC, police will no longer be directly in charge of the papers, as a strict procedure is implemented to secure distribution to schools/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 13 – The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has introduced strict measures to implement the secure distribution of examination papers to schools across the country.
According to documents from KNEC, police will no longer be directly in charge of the papers, as a strict procedure is implemented to secure distribution to schools.
The documents indicate that “a total of 346 strong double-lock metal containers whose keys are only with education officials have been distributed across all the sub-county offices and county commissioners tasked to ensure 24-hour security.”
“Head teachers will collect exam papers at 5am every day from these containers, which must be opened jointly by the sub-county education officials and an examinations official in the presence of a police officer,” it stated.
The documents indicate that the head teachers and sub-county education officers will then sign against accountability documents confirming both the container and exam papers have not been tampered with, and then be escorted by a senior police officer to the exam centres.
“In the past, exam papers have been kept in the Kenya National Examinations Council offices in Nairobi and then dispatched to police armouries across the country, sometimes up to four days earlier, an arrangement that facilitated leaks,” the documents stated.
The papers will arrive from overseas one week to the start of exams for temporary storage in protected regional distribution centres in Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret and Wajir.
From here, they will be dispatched to the sub-county containers from where there will be daily deliveries, with KNEC hiring helicopters for deliveries in far-flung areas.
Each page of the question papers to be used by candidates will further have specific watermark barcodes that will help in investigations and identification of any copying.
Shrink-wrapping has also been introduced on all examination cartons to discourage breakage.
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