National Examinations in Kenya: Hundreds of thousands of 2019 KCPE candidates have been deregistered. This follows what the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) terms as possible collusion in use of fake birth certificates.
According to a report in The Standard newspaper, parents and head teachers in schools countrywide might have colluded to use false birth certificate papers to register candidates for this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.
“Knec data shows that 1.78 million candidates were registered to sit the 2019 examinations, whose registration deadline was February 15. Of these, 1,089,671 were KCPE candidates while 698,935 students registered for KCSE, from all the 10,304 centers. Knec subsequently cancelled the registration of 342,916 KCPE candidates and 28,713 in secondary schools. This means that only 746,755 candidates have validly been registered to sit the KCPE examinations while only 670,222 candidates can sit the KCSE tests,” says the report in The Standard.
According to The Standard, Meru has the highest number of cancelled registrations, with 23,806 candidates in primary and 3,646 in secondary schools. Marsabit has the fewest cases, with only 45 students’ registration questioned, of which 42 are in primary schools.
Registration had started on January 2, before Knec asked parents, teachers and candidates to verify their details between February 16 and 22. The parents and candidates were advised to send the candidates’ index numbers to 20076. During the registration process, schools are expected to enter details of correct birth certificates and legitimate photographs of candidates. Candidates’ names, school codes and subjects to be written are also entered accurately.
Knec is also investigating reports that some examination centres used fake data to register students to avoid being stripped off their centre status. The centres are expected to have a minimum number of candidates for Knec to retain them. This year, Knec said new schools wishing to be listed by Knec as examination centres must submit valid registration certificates from the county Director of Education, an inspection report from the sub-county office, and a dully-filled application form.