The pursuit and use of fake academic qualifications to access employment will be tamed once the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) is out in the market.
According to National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss Shollei, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and skills under the CBC will cure the malady of fake papers.
She said reforms in the education system will in future play a role in accessing employment as it reduces the cut throat competition for degrees, supporting the government’s decision to remove from the payroll those who got employment through falsified means.
The government, she said, has a challenge tackling the increased use of fake degrees especially to access political office and employment in the civil service, adding that culprits should face the law because faking academic documents is criminal.
Shollei said placing very high premiums on degrees became a vogue during former President Moi’s government when degrees were a must to access employment, especially in the civil service.
She suggested that those who accessed employment in the civil service fraudulently should be allowed to resign without facing the law, but refund the money they have earned as salaries over the years.
Kathiani MP Robert Mbui warned that the war on fake degrees will not succeed unless human resource departments in government and the private sector offer jobs to Kenyans based on their academic papers.
He noted that in the past some Kenyans and politicians who sought employment and elective posts were found guilty of using fake degrees but went unpunished, hence creating impunity over recognition and appreciation of genuine academic documents.
Young Kenyans, he said, are discouraged from pursuing higher education because they have seen politicians becoming governors and Cabinet Secretaries without proper papers.
He wondered how the government expect young Kenyans to work hard when people with fake degrees are all over the place in high offices.
High levels of incompetence in the civil service can be traced to increasing use of fake degree certificates.
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By Robert Nyagah
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