| News Gang | KCPE: Don't Burn Their Future!

YVONNE: our joint final word tonight is both the sounding of alarm bells and a call for reason. First, really, as a country, we cannot proceed as if nothing just happened. We think the fiasco over the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education results is a big deal; indeed, a grave matter.

SAM: so grave a matter that it would be understandable to note if a majority of well-meaning Kenyans are having a sleepless night about it. When doubts are cast over the integrity of such a foundational examination as the KCPE, then the country has a reason to worry, not just about its present but also its future.

LINUS: indeed, we are in the middle of unchartered waters. We have searched deep into the history of our education and examination processes and indeed we have never been here. A line has been crossed and an abomination could well be underway.

YVONNE: Abomination if we put it in the most conservative terms. All our past misadventures be they accidental or by design have rarely involved children. Even less, children of as tender ages as the thousands of KCPE candidates who sat their exams and expected that exam to be marked and their grades given without any drama.

SAM: And drama the children of Kenya are witnessing. As government officials go to great pains to defend the integrity of the marking of those exams, the grading and the subsequent release of the results. In the last two days education officials have been sweating it out explaining that they did their bit and that the results are an accurate reflection of the performance of the KCPE candidates.

LINUS: Now, one would be forgiven to think that is an electoral commission officer defending our regularly contested presidential elections in Kenya. Pardon us, that is the cabinet secretary in charge of education explaining that all is well with the exam results. But a few questions arise. First, it’s been close to two weeks since the KCPE results were released. Where has the Cabinet secretary been?

YVONNE: When a matter of such gravity and public interest is greeted with silence and indifference, then folks, we are talking of an offence against the public. On the day KCPE results were released, silence was the official code as parents spent an entire two hours of Thursday sending countless messages to the short message code provided without a response but with a cost, what was the unexplainable technical hitch?

SAM: Inexplicable the hitch remains. And when parents eventually received messages on the phones but with misposted results, where was the even the basic duty of care from the education officials? Well, the Kenya National Examinations Council came out to explain that the errors had been corrected and that if repeat messages were sent, they would return the accurate results. But that was two days later.

LINUS: Whatever reasons behind the exam results hitches, the Ministry and the examination councils have left a marking scheme of how not to do it. They were neither timely nor sensitive of the anguish the hitches were causing the exam candidates, their parents and the nation in general.

YVONNE: For a start, we are dealing with lives. Young, innocent lives for that matter. Look, tens of parents are now in court seeking the correct results for their children. This is unprecedented. Minors not older than fifteen are now counting on the courtrooms to know how many marks they scored from just seven papers that they sat across three days. What are we telling them?

SAM: The country, particularly the education authorities, owe each of the 1.4 million candidates a profuse apology. Those children deserve better and they do deserve better as they wait on the ministry of education to conduct the form one selection, assign them schools based on their choices and availability of slots. And that will be communicated via, wait for it, the SMS platform and later an online portal.

LINUS: the 2023 KCPE exam was the 39th and the last. The class of 2023 deserved a smooth ending. And for the avoidance of doubt, the introduction of KCPE and the 8-4-4 system was a thoroughly adult affair. There were dedicated political leaders, government officials and education experts that ensured a smooth take off. And the rough landing underscored by the results fiasco, marks a lasting insult to their impeccable education legacy

YVONNE: Which is why, this should be a night of guilt for those in positions of decision and responsibility over the country's education sector. Whatever the outcome of the probe, they have let down our children. And if that may be water under the bridge, there is a whole future for which no adult or government should be casual about. Our misadventures, and we have many, should spare two things: one, the children and two the future of this nation.

And that is our joint final word