Yes, it was bad when university admissions were based on bed spaces (Henry Lesege, Saturday Nation, 18/2/2023) but it will certainly be worse if fake KCSE exam grades are going to be used instead.
During the times of Fred Matiang’i and the late George Magoha as Education Cabinet Secretaries (CSs), we were really trying to move away from the fictitious A’s and B+’s in KCSE but now, look. Enter CS Machogu and the order has apparently been reversed.
The former two gentlemen did very good work. During exams times they would be seen all over the place going to check on the suitability of personnel involved in the whole exercise and the security of exam materials.
Nobody with a sane mind will have a quarrel with many A’s and B+’s but everybody should have real concern regarding spurious A’s and B+’s. In other words, we should all be condemning cheating in examinations.
Imagine someone who cheats his way through the KCSE level and does the same thing at the university where he graduates as a medical doctor, a surgeon.
How would you entrust your life to such a fellow? Nor would you be comfortable with an architect who goes through the same fake process to design and build your skyscraper.
Come on, let’s be serious for once. Why do we always seem to love faking our ways through everything? You remember the time a university degree became a requirement in order to be elected for some political positions? The number of those who faked their degrees shot up which was hardly surprising, given that our politicians are top position when it comes to cheating.
But is this the way we should be going? Not at all. We should all be moving towards eradicating cheating in examinations. Matiang’i and the late Magoha had started us off very well in the right direction. So when Machogu tries to take us back, we should all be worried.
We should not be glorifying the number of the graduates that we have, as Lesege suggests, including the fake ones. We should instead be happy with the genuine ones, however few they are.
In any case, it should be easier for the government to plan for a few cases of genuine unemployed graduates than for a whole mass of exam cheats of graduates.
And in most cases it is these exam cheats who interfere with the chances of genuine job seekers, for the former are always with money to bribe their way through.
CS Machogu, I am calling you out. Either you step up your efforts or let someone else capable to take over.
By Enock Shirandula
The writer is a retired educationist, a Kabarasi language reviewer of Kabarasi BTL Project and author of ‘SO DIFFERENT SHE WAS’.
Email: emshirandula@yahoo.com
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