By Victor Ochieng’
The menace of exam cheating has seriously dented students’ future careers. It has also cast aspersion on the exercise steered by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC). It has also made people lose faith in the 8-4-4 System.
After the release of 2021 KCSE, it was alleged that the integrity of the exams in some centres had been compromised. The fact that the results of some schools were withheld is proof of this. Arguably, the monster of exam cheating slain by Dr. Fred Matiang’i and his dream team is back with its ferocious fangs and callous claws.
When students cheat in exams, they put their future careers in precarious positions. A student can cheat and score a good grade that enables him or her to qualify for a course like Medicine.
In such a scenario, the glaring question that stares us like Medusa’s face is: Does this ilk of student wield the wherewithal to pursue such a profession?
In actual sense, it should never be lost on us that aptitude as a natural inclination towards a particular profession has a close connection with academic performance. No wonder, every year after KCSE, the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) comes up with the university and college cut-off points. In the final analysis, category of grades – first, middle, low and lowest grades – play a pivotal role in matters varsity and college placements.
Its therefore advisable for students to garner grades they deserve. Based on how well they are prepared for exams, they should get grades which are in tandem with their attitudes, aptitudes and abilities.
If they are encouraged to cheat their way to the top, they will drop out of tertiary institutions due to dearth of mental strength. This isn’t healthy for the mental health of students. This is not healthy for mental health of students. Sometimes, it takes a toll on them. In some situations, things go south and we see them sink into depression, or even commit suicide in mysterious manners.
When the head honchos in schools encourage cheating in exams, they raise children who lack useful virtues and values like integrity, honesty and trustworthiness. People who lack integrity also suffer from scarcity and paucity of soft skills like dependability and reliability which are very important when it comes to job placement and employment that brings enjoyment.
Lack of exam integrity plants weeds of corruption in the hearts and minds of learners. When schools nurture the culture of cheating, they train young people to be prone to cutting corners. Yet, in actual sense, short cuts are often wrong cuts.
By and large, schools that cheat and get stellar results they do not deserve put other schools in a difficult situation.
Being a game of mean scores, when results are out, we are swift to celebrate those who get impressive mean scores without questioning the means they use to prop up themselves to the epic peak.
Principals who are prone to this troglodyte culture of cheating are lionized for no good reason. Their counterparts who try to post genuine results are sometimes not to be working hard.
It should never be lost on us, that when results are massaged for some students to attain peak performance under questionable circumstances, we become so unfair to students who work hard to get authentic results. This brings out the disparities that exist in the society, which in Animal Farm by George Orwell we are told: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
Somehow, it may not be easy to establish which schools cheat in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) albeit; those who cheat know it so well.
In case their conscience is alive, guilt and regret gnaws them when they cut intricate corners.
It is a sad state of affairs that there are school arrowheads who choose to throw integrity to the winds hence condone cheating in exams. In some schools, wayward teachers choose to become blatantly dubious by choosing to cheat.
The wonder of wonders, there are schools with impudent students who attempt to sneak phones into schools in order to get leakages from some farcical sources.
If secondary schools focus on Best Academic Practices, they will see no need to focus on cheating. There is no need to rely on leakage when schools have stupendous syllabus coverage strategies put in place. It is pointless to compromise the integrity of KCSE in examination centres if practice and preparation is given priority in schools.
The writer rolls out talks and training services in schools. vochieng.90@gmail.com
