CS Machogu Admits Error In Raila’s KCPE Expose
Education Cabinet Secretary Machogu has addressed and clarified the situation following ODM leader Raila Odinga’s assertion that the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) granted a contract to a domestic firm for producing the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Examinations (KCPE).
He additionally singled out Odinga, mentioning that contracts for printing, coding, and transportation are granted every year, suggesting that Kenya has the capability to print its own documents.
”We have not terminated anybody’s contract. Every year a contract is made,” he explained.
Although he denied Raila’s claims regarding the cancellation of a contract given to a British company in favor of a local Kenyan company situated near Mombasa Road, he acknowledged that there were some minor errors in the release of the exams.
During the Education Committee session in Parliament on Thursday, the CS stated that the mistakes were caused by a firm hired to oversee the QR code responsible for transmitting results.
“As a CS, I have learned lessons because basically you can see as a ministry, everything was right. Somebody we can call an outsider was given the contract but did not really conform and do to the required standard. Moving forward, when we release the KCSE examinations, we will not be able to make use of the same service provider,” Machogu stated.
However, he still maintained that the results were factual, stating, “The Ministry did not rush the release of the 2023 KCPE results. We undertook due diligence in marking, verification, and validation before releasing the exam and releasing the results.”
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He elaborated that despite KNEC implementing quality control measures throughout the exam process, in this final year of the examinations, certain uncontrollable errors occurred. These issues were promptly addressed right after the results were published.
With assistance from the Ministry of Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT), the governing body sought a forensic examination of the 2023 KCPE results following the filing of 1,043 complaints. As of now, 871 of these complaints have been addressed.
At the same time, regarding the situation where certain students obtained grades for exams they didn’t actually take, Machogu explained that it was due to manually inputting the marks into the system. This occurred because the authorities permitted unregistered candidates to participate in this year’s examinations.
He argued that KNEC showed a general enhancement in preventing exam leaks compared to past years, and disputed ODM leader Raila Odinga’s claim that the security codes for the exams were compromised.
“There were challenges in transportation and packaging of the papers as the system was not secured due to social media and advanced technology,” PS Belio Kipsang, who accompanied the CS, clarified to the committee.
CS Machogu Admits Error In Raila’s KCPE Expose
