KCSE exam results out before Christmas, says Amina

The more than 600,000 candidates who who sat this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination will get their results before Christmas.

Education secretary Amina Mohamed said marking will be done promptly to allow parents plan for university and college entry.

"President Uhuru Kenyatta will announce the date when the results will be released," said Ms Mohamed at Nairobi School when she witnessed the sealing of the last paper. Last year, KCSE exam results were released on December 20.

Chief examiners are in Nairobi laying ground for marking of the examinations. The answer scripts are expected in Nairobi by November 30. The examiners, who will do the actual marking of the scripts for the 664,585 candidates, are expected in the 19 examination marking centres in Nairobi and its environs on December 3.

Ms Mohamed said smuggling of mobile phones into exam rooms and teachers accessing materials before start time were the key malpractices identified during the this year’s examination period that ended yesterday.

At least 10 board of management (BoM) teachers in four schools were arrested and charged in connection with various cases of malpractices.

Mobile phones can easily be used by candidates to guide in the answering of questionnaires

"A total of 101 cell phones confiscated from teachers, candidates and school staff are with security agencies as investigations continue into attempts to use the gadgets to relay information into examination rooms," said Ms Mohamed.

She added that four students were deregistered for impersonation.

The CS further said officials in charge of 10 centres were fired for transportation of examination materials in private vehicles in breach of rules that demand that the materials be ferried by government vehicles or those leased by the State.

Ms Mohamed also said candidates at Ambira High School must prepare for tighter scrutiny and marking of their scripts after eight of them suggested they had cheated on video.