Minority Leader of the National Assembly, James Opiyo Wandayi, has expressed concern that the 2023 KCSE results may face the same challenges as the recently released Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam results.
His remarks come a month after the KCPE exam results were released, which were marred by discrepancies that the Ministry of Education has since attributed to transmission errors.
The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has come under fire for incorrectly awarding marks to some candidates and assigning grades for subjects that the students did not take.
Wandayi has now called on KNEC to swiftly address the issues that led to the mismanagement of the KCPE exam results, warning that failure to do so could result in an even more problematic release of the impending KCSE exams.
“I am afraid that if we do not handle the issues surrounding the bungling of the last KCPE and the results, we should be prepared for a similar or even worse thing in the impending release of KCSE results,” said the Ugunja Member of Parliament.
Wandayi further argued that a recent Parliamentary committee session attended by Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu and officials from his ministry to respond to the discrepancies left lawmakers with more questions than answers.
“The Cabinet Secretary for Education alongside officers from his docket were in Parliament, and after lengthy deliberations, a lot more questions emerged. Instead of finding answers to the many questions that were lingering, he left a lot more questions,” lamented Wandayi.
While expressing regret over the alleged existence of cartels within the Ministry of Education and KNEC, the legislator raised doubts about the credibility of the company awarded the contract for printing examination papers.
He also questioned the transparency of the tender awarding process, calling for a thorough investigation into the matter.
