NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 26 – The Ministry of Education now says school administrators who failed to register students for the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations will face court action.
Permanent Secretary Prof Karega Mutahi on Monday expressed the ministry’s concern about incidents of school heads not registering students for the exams, despite receiving their registration fees.
“Any proprietor that failed to register students will be dealt with according to the law. Any proprietor that failed to provide facilities for the exams cannot be allowed to function in education and we will have to deal with him,” he stated.
“But for now, we cannot do anything until the exams are out of the way,” he added.
Prof Mutahi said that stern measures will also be taken against anyone trying to sell examination papers.
“There have been cases where people have been caught trying to sell fake examination papers. Let me tell you nobody is going to get away with it. We will not let them mess up children’s lives.”
The Education PS also gave the assurance that the KCSE examinations were proceeding well, but pointed out that focus will be put in flood prone areas where the rains have affected the examination process.
“The KCSE exams are going on perfectly well. There are challenges in some areas because of the weather. We have places like the North Eastern where I am told two or three schools may be marooned,” he stated.
He was speaking at a seminar where he emphasised that effort were being put to ensure that candidates sit their examinations in a conducive environment.
“You have also seen that some candidates are doing their exams where there are no chairs and tables in private centres in Nairobi. We are going to move the students where there are facilities and then we can deal with the issue of why it happened,” he stated.
“The proprietors will tell us and I can assure you that they indeed will tell us.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology is urging Parliament to debate and pass a Bill that will seek to streamline the sector.
Permanent Secretary Professor Crispus Kiamba said that the rate of completing a course in many institutions of higher learning differ leading to frustrations among the youth.
He pointed out that the Bill seeks to harmonise the learning process and improve it.
“There is urgent need to rationalise and structure these things so that we are all operating a system that is reasonable and that is comparable,” Professor Kiamba said.
“That is why we are putting up this new institution that will be called Technical Industrial Vocational and Entrepreneurial Training (TIVET) Authority that will manage the total sector both private and public,” he stated.
“If it was my wish then it should be there yesterday. Given the process that we must go through, it might take possibly three to six months but again it will depend on the activities of our parliament,” he explained.
“We however should take as short as possible because it is badly needed.”
About The Author
