The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has announced changes to the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam papers in a bid to curb cheating.
Speaking during a meeting at Mtihani House, KNEC CEO David Njengere said students taking the 2024 KCSE exams will have their papers customized with their names, index numbers, and other personal details pre-printed.
“We shall personalize the examination papers so that each candidate will have their details already printed. This means that in case of malpractices, we shall ask the candidate why they allowed their paper to be used by someone else,” said Njengere.
With the new changes, Njengere noted that any misconduct by individual candidates will see them punished independently and not the entire school or an examination center.
In addition, it means there will be no extra answer papers or question papers for candidates and school principals will not be allowed to photocopy the papers.
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At the end of each paper, the section containing the candidates’ details will be removed and packed separately to prevent examiners from identifying the candidates while marking.
Previously, candidates were required to write down their names, index numbers, and other personal details in spaces provided in the exam papers.
Various cases of cheating in the papers are reported each year, with the council confident that the new changes will curb such cases as well as cases of impersonation, which is an examination malpractice, previously reported, though in rare instances.
Some 965,501 candidates have registered for the 2024 KCSE examination, compared to the 903,264 candidates who sat the examination in 2023.
According to Njegere, only registered candidates will be allowed to sit the exam and will only be allowed to take the subjects they registered for.
