According to CS Machogu, the Ministry of Education has taken proactive measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents in the future.
Several months after the release of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results, concerns arose among some candidates due to errors detected in the printed nominal rolls. The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has acknowledged that these errors were caused by a system glitch.
These recent developments followed inquiries made to Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu regarding grade discrepancies reported at Kililai Secondary School during the 2023 KCSE Examination. These inquiries were initiated following a request from Igembe South MP John Mwirigi.
As per documents presented to the Education Committee in Parliament on April 10, KNEC officials encountered technical challenges during the printing process, resulting in the omission of minus signs for certain grades. The impact of this error extended to 3,018 candidates across 1,059 examination centers nationwide, with Kililai Secondary School being among the affected institutions.
Committee members expressed concern over the distress experienced by affected students and the resultant confusion in affected schools.
KNEC assured the Committee that the online portal displayed accurate results and that discrepancies were confined to the printed nominal rolls distributed to schools. Corrected printouts have been supplied to affected schools, including Kililai.
In an effort to forestall similar incidents, CS Machogu proposed several recommendations. These include the establishment of a multi-sectoral ICT committee tasked with overseeing the examination process from marking to result release. Additionally, CS Machogu proposed implementing regular load tests to assess system capacity accurately. Furthermore, KNEC will undertake the upgrade of its IT infrastructure and implement continuous performance monitoring to proactively identify potential issues.
Through these proactive measures, the Ministry of Education aims to ensure the integrity of the examination process and prevent future occurrences of errors in examination results reporting.