The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has introduced several changes to the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.
According to KNEC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Njengere, these changes aim to prevent exam cheating.
Njengere emphasized that candidates who violate the rules will be held personally accountable.
In a statement made at Mitihani House, he explained that students taking the 2024 KCSE exams will have their papers customized with their names, index numbers, and other personal details pre-printed.
This approach ensures that any misconduct by individual candidates will not result in penalties for an entire school or examination center.
“What we are saying is that 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.
In the past, candidates have been asked to record their names, index numbers, and other personal details in the designated spaces on the exam papers.
Njengere clarified that this change means there will be no additional answer or question papers provided for candidates. Moreover, principals will not be permitted to photocopy the papers, contrary to reports in some cases.
At the end of each exam, the section with candidates’ details will be removed and stored separately to prevent examiners from identifying candidates during marking.
Njengere also stated that personalizing the papers will help eliminate cases of impersonation, a rare but reported exam malpractice. He noted that the council discovered that for every 100 examination papers, an extra copy was printed and made available at the examination center.
Private candidates will now take their theory exams at the County headquarters, a change from the previous arrangement where they were held at the Sub-County headquarters.
Additionally, only candidates who are registered will be permitted to sit for the exam, and they will only be allowed to take the subjects for which they have registered.
“We gave you two months to register candidates, and we even did a campaign where we met all center managers and informed them of these innovations.
“We, therefore, expect that all candidates’ details were captured accurately at the registration stage and there will be no room for excuses,” added Njengere.
Some 965,501 candidates have registered for the 2024 KCSE examination, compared to the 903,264 candidates who sat the examination in 2023, recording a 6.89 per cent increase.
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By Frank Mugwe
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