Kathiani Member of Parliament Robert Mbui has expressed fears about the performance of the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates given existing challenges in the country.
In Mbui’s view, the 2023 cohort will undertake their final examinations amid unprecedented obstacles, among them disastrous rainfall which will cause lengthy delays in the administration of the exams.
Speaking during Citizen TV’s Daybreak on Monday, the legislator cited the few obstacles witnessed during the concluded Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) where examination officers had to be ferried across swollen rivers by locals just to take exams to different institutions.
“Unfortunately for the first time in Kenya, they are going to have major challenges in this particular exam because I raised it in parliament recently that when you introduce a plan that the centre managers will have to pick exams two times in a day and considering the situation we have now with heavy rains and the terrain because some of those centres are far from the institutions,” he said.
He further claimed that the examination delivery has not been financially reinforced, arguing that officers have been forced to borrow fuel from petrol stations just to transport examination papers.
“There is a major increase in cost which has not even been met because some of our education officers are complaining that they don’t have enough money to fuel in fact they are borrowing fuel from petrol stations so that they can be able to manage the exams,” he said.
MP Mbui argues that the aforementioned hitches will only spike panic levels in students and impede them from focusing on their examinations.
“We also know that when the exams get delayed the mode of panic also increases so chances are that there are those who may do badly just because of the fear,” Mbui argued.
He however encouraged the candidates to put their best foot forward and undertake their tests with confidence while wishing them success.
“I would want to tell our candidates to take it easy and do your best, brace yourselves for the delays. It’s better they know so that they don’t panic.”
The KCSE exams kicked off Monday morning and are set to end on November 24.
