CS Machogu’s Admission and Response to Raila Odinga’s 2023 KCPE Expose
After ODM leader Raila Odinga alleged that the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) gave a tender to a local company to print the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Examinations (KCPE), Education CS Machogu has come out to clear the air.
He also called Raila, saying that printing, coding, and transportation tenders are issued on an annual basis, and Kenya can produce its own newspaper.
”We have not terminated anybody’s contract. Each and every year a contract is made,” he explained.
Despite denying Raila’s claims that a tender awarded to a UK company was canceled in favor of a Kenyan firm headquartered near Mombasa Road, he confessed that the examinations were released with minor flaws.
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On Thursday, the CS spoke before Parliament’s Education Committee, attributing the problems on a company hired to administer the QR code used for reporting results.
Education Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Machogu, acknowledged that valuable lessons have been learned from the recent events surrounding examination services. According to him, the ministry had initially believed that everything was in order when outsourcing the services to an external provider.
However, it became evident that the chosen contractor did not meet the required standards. Mr. Machogu emphasized that, in the future, a different service provider will be sought when releasing the KCSE examinations to ensure adherence to the necessary standards.
He emphasized that the processes of marking, verification, and validation underwent meticulous due diligence before the examination results were ultimately released.
Furthermore, he acknowledged that, despite the implementation of quality control measures at all stages of the exam, some errors occurred beyond the control of KNEC. These issues were promptly addressed once the results were released.
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After receiving 1,043 complaints, the authority approached the Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) ministry for a forensic assessment of 2023 KCPE results, and thus 871 have been rectified thus far.
Meanwhile, Machogu blamed the issue of some students receiving test results for papers they did not sit on the manual feeding of the marks into the system, which occurred since the authority permitted unregistered candidates to take this year’s papers.
In defense, KNEC highlighted an overall improvement in curbing exam leakages compared to previous years, emphasizing that the security codes of the exams remained intact, contrary to the claims made by ODM leader Raila Odinga.
The committee received clarification from PS Belio Kipsang, who explained that challenges arose in the transportation and packaging of the papers. He attributes these issues to the system’s lack of security and the prevalence of social media and advanced technology.
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CS Machogu’s Admission and Response to Raila Odinga’s 2023 KCPE Expose
