Things are getting thick for Kenya’s school examiner over claims of mismanaging Standard Eight national exams and releasing messed up results.
On Monday, at least two cases were filed against the Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) amid a firestorm touched off by allegations of glaring errors in the award of marks and grades to pupils.
In the capital Nairobi, Kitengela International School asked the High Court to issue an order stopping Knec and the Education ministry from embarking on Form One selection until its case is heard and determined.
On Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu announced that the placement exercise would commence on November 27 2023, and go on for two weeks.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, the school argues that should the selection proceed as planned, innocent pupils will be denied justice.
Parents and teachers of Set Green Hill Primary School in Kisii were enjoined in the Kitengela International School petition, with the school’s management demanding a re-mark.
“The only thing that should be done is that the pupils are awarded the correct marks. There is no way pupils can be scoring over 420 marks all along and from nowhere they end up scoring less than 400,” the management said in a statement.
The petitioners argue that since they intend to challenge the results, they would be disadvantaged if the Form One selection goes ahead.
There have been widespread claims of irregularities in the KCPE results, with many candidates disputing their scores. In the Kitengela case, the applicant is Mr Pius Kiio, suing on behalf of a candidate (as the guardian).
“The applicant is dissatisfied with the way her child’s papers were marked in the rushed release of KCPE examinations which caused his child mental stress and torture for which he prays for general damages and has written to the second respondent herein requesting for review under Section 27 of the Kenya National Examinations Council’s rules,” the petition reads in part.
While addressing the Press after filing the petition, which he asked the High Court to certify as urgent, Mr Omari, who is also representing Set Greenhill Academy, said that Mr Machogu failed to issue an official circular to communicate the start of Form One placement exercise.
“The applicant is apprehensive that the exercise is rushed and makes meaningless the 90-day review period provided under the rules and the exercise will, therefore, be an unreasonable action as the action will make his child miss a secondary school of his choice should the review be in his favour,” the court documents read.
This is the second consecutive year the school is disputing KCPE results. It appealed for a review of the 2021 results and, according to the documents in court, it is yet to receive a response from Knec.
The school presented 188 candidates for the 2022 KCPE examinations. The top two candidates tied at 358 marks while the lowest score was 182. The school had a mean score of 321.61.
For the Set Greenhill Academy case, the applicant is Everlyn Kemuma Omwoyo, suing for her son.
The school has also written to Knec contesting that the results “do not reflect the expectations and ability of our candidates, merit-wise”.
