Use lessons learnt to manage exams better

The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination finally ended yesterday and the general observation was that it was generally well-administered.

For the third year running, the Education ministry, the Kenya National Examinations Council and other agencies have acquitted themselves well in managing it.

We have turned the corner and restored sanity and credibility to the exam. What the country went through a few years ago was tragic and shameful.

National exams were badly managed, with papers massively leaked and grades shamelessly altered, all at a cost.

As a result, many schools became market places for buying exams. Teachers stopped teaching and instead perfected the art of drilling candidates using stolen exams. It is unfortunate that those who presided over that chaos were never seized and punished.

Even so, we acknowledge the radical steps taken to change the tide. According to the exit verdict declared yesterday by Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, the exams were largely leak-free. Some irregularities were recorded in just two schools, which is a major improvement from the past.

In total, some 110 suspects, including candidates, were arrested over exam irregularities, and 101 phones confiscated from fellows who tried to use them to leak the papers.

The stringent rules have made a difference. But the challenge is sustainability. Exams have been turned into a security operation, undermining the objective and purpose of testing. The next step is marking and again, the process is also tightly secured to eliminate manipulation of grades.

However, there have been concerns over the quality of marking. This is rushed, ostensibly to seal loopholes for mischief, but in the process some vital steps are skipped and that leads to skewed grading. Speed is of essence but so is the credibility and reliability of the grades.

The measures ensure that candidates get the grades they deserve.

The long-term strategy is to relook the whole concept of examinations, which are currently the single determinants of the future of learners.

They are highly competitive with top performers garlanded and weak ones condemned. This explains the irresistible attempts by schools and some learners to cheat.

Not surprisingly, some students become so agitated and resort to violence to protest when their devious ways are blocked.

Lessons learnt in the past three years should help in redefining the way exams are administered, marked and graded and the desire is that all candidates get the grades they justly earned.