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The Ministry of Education top leadership has been advised to involve all stakeholders before coming up with major recommendations and policies affecting the sector.

A renowned PCEA cleric Reverend Godfrey Jomo regretted that lately the Prof George Magoha led ministry has been effecting far-reaching measures without involving other key players in the sector such as secondary school principals, parents and teachers’ unions.

Speaking during an interview with the media at Reach All for Christ Church in Mbari ya Nguura village in Gikondi division, Nyeri County, Rev Jomo singled out the recent move by the government to allow school heads to send away students who had not cleared fees terming it unilateral and punitive to parents owing to the current hard economic times.

He said the fees issue should have been deliberated conclusively by various stakeholders before that decision was reached as many parents were still struggling to put food on the table as they were yet to recover from negative economic impact on their occupations occasioned by the outbreak Covid-19.

“The Education CS had earlier this year assured parents that no student would be denied education due to lack of fees, only to change tune during this term’s midterm break, whereby he demanded that parents clear third term fees first before their children are allowed back to class.

“However, this term is very short and besides parents were not given adequate time to seek for fees,” said the cleric, adding that the midterm break was not even necessary, coming only a few weeks before schools close and it also exposed students to the risk of contracting Coronavirus.

At the same time, Rev Jomo who doubles as Nairobi School Chaplain challenged the national government to always ensure timely release of funds to learning institutions to enable them run smoothly.

He said school managements have been suffering a lot due to delayed release of funds while being expected to retain and maintain learners.

“Principals are silently struggling to keep the institutions running owing to late release of funds. These students must be fed, while water and electricity bills must be cleared to prevent disconnection,” he emphasized.

Meanwhile, Rev Jomo has expressed concern over alleged unilaterally delayed form one selection saying it had caused grave anxiety among students and their parents and should be concluded forthwith.

“Our standard 8 candidates who sat for their final exams have been thrown into a long educational sabbatical leave which is counterproductive. It would have been commendable and convenient to parents if the selection was done immediately after the results were released as it would have guaranteed them ample time to look for fees and also buy required items,” he stated.

Moreover, the clergyman feared that many learners may not transit to Form I come July as anticipated because the long break had most likely exposed them to social vices such as early marriages, drug abuse and child labour.

The Ministry of Education should have learnt a lesson from the last extended school holiday occasioned by the first wave of Covid-19, such that when learning institutions reopened in January a sizable number of learners were lost without trace.

And by time efforts were made to trace the missing students, some had already become child mothers, while others had already gotten married and even divorced in record time, added Rev Jomo.

On the rising indiscipline cases among students, the P.C.E.A cleric advised the Education docket to strengthen guidance and counselling departments in learning institutions to effectively offer psycho-social support to mentally disturbed learners.

He also stressed on the need for the ministry to ensure all secondary schools had a chaplain to offer distressed children a shoulder to cry on.

“Chaplaincy is a very important intervention in a school set up. It puts more emphasis on pastoral relationship as a key to change through spiritual inspiration and mentorship. The chaplain supports students through moments of stress, depression and other emerging issues,” he explained.

The cleric, who has served as a chaplain for the last 18 years, therefore urged the government to move with speed and in collaboration with various churches deploy chaplains to secondary schools to guarantee mental well-being of the learners.

Rev Jomo further accused parents of abdicating their responsibility of raising their children to teachers as they engaged in pursuit of wealth to bequeath their families when they pass on.

He called on such ever-busy parents to spend some quality time with their young ones in order to encourage and mentor them as they mature. “We should learn to invest in our children and not for our children if we want them to become responsible citizens,’’ stated the cleric.

PENALTY FOR EXAMINATION IRREGULARITIES

Apart from disciplinary action from the Commission, the teachers may also face charges in the court of law.

According to the KNEC Act No. 29 of 2012, offences and Penalties stated in Sections 27 to 40 for cases of examination irregularities will apply.

For instance, any person who gains access to examination material and knowingly reveals the contents, whether orally or in writing, to an unauthorized party, whether a candidate or not, will be in violation of Section 27 of the Act and the penalty will be imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or a fine not exceeding two million shillings or both.

Cheating cases

CS Magoha says the KCSE 2020 examinations did not leak and that all attempts to expose examination papers were thwarted in a timely manner in a few centers across the country.

” We experienced a number of cases where examination officials attempted to open the papers with the intention of exposing them to candidates before the actual examinations started. We thwarted these efforts in a few centres countrywide, some of which I released to you during my weekly briefs,” CS Magoha says.

He adds that 37 civilians, including three university students and two businessmen, were arrested for attempting to engage (or assist) in examination irregularities. Also Fifty-three cell phones were confiscated from candidates at examination rooms during the exercise.

During the 2019 KCSE exams, close to 100 mobile phones were collected from various examination centres even as more than 10 impersonators were apprehended in Kisii. They had connived with unscrupulous people to produce fake photo albums to give the impression they were genuinely KNEC registered candidates for KCSE.

In Nairobi’s Eastleigh, 35 mobile phones were collected from a single centre. There were some cases of individuals who were attempting early exposure of examination papers, among other ills.

All those involved in these attempts were apprehended.

And determined to stem examinations irregularities attempts, KNEC still cancelled 1, 309 individual results for candidates from these failed cases of cheating.

The forms of cheating were manifest in the use of mobile phones, carrying unauthorized materials to examination rooms, and collusion.

Of the 1,309 candidates whose results were cancelled, 1,158 engaged in collusion in a bid to cheat in the exam, 101 were found with unauthorised materials in the exam room while 47 were found with mobile phones.

Two candidates will miss their results for impersonation while one other caused disturbance, hence cancellation of their results.

However, the number of cases of irregularities is much lower than the 4,519 cancelled in the 2018 KCSE.

In 2019, a total 658 KCSE results were withheld for routine checks on small details, including accuracy of their names and registration details. These results will be released to candidates as soon as the verification process is completed.