Magoha on the spot amid exam cheating allegations
Having curved a niche as a no-nonsense civil servant, Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) George Magoha appears to be gradually losing face among Kenyans amid claims of cheating in the High School exams.
There have been widespread allegations of the vice in both the mainstream and social media, with reports that some of the original papers are available for sale for as little as Sh1000.
Magoha though maintains there is no exam ‘leakage’.
This assurance has not convinced Kenyans, some of whom demanded his resignation with another section asking for the reinstatement of current Interior CS Fred Matiang’i.
Matiang’i was Education CS between 2013 and 2018 but moved to Interior to replace Joseph Nkaissery who passed on while in office.
Matiang’i is remembered for stamping out exam cheating during the primary and secondary exams.
“Education sector deserves Matiang’i!” wrote Zeina Kanyingi.
“Matiangi should have remained in the ministry of education in his entire career life, that is the only legacy we as Kenya will only remember him with,” commented Paul Mbatha.
“This man. Magoha should just resign…he has failed terribly…we can’t trust you with our children’s education again,” stated Murimia Joseph.
“Hahaaa; Magoha will tell u to ignore the hearsays when actually the papers are out here being sold like vegetables,” said Jared Marcus.
“Magoha aende security Matiang’i arudi education,” remarked brain Onyango.
Others were of a different opinion.
“The things that are destroying Kenya are like this exam cheating. You add unfair marks to an undeserving candidate & he gets a scholarship to study abroad then fails in all his studies & life or he buys a Degree gets a job like eg Economist, engineer or doctor then ruins people’s lives. We used to see how schools used to enroll candidates with the same marks of KCPE then miraculously some schools always performed better and you wonder what the hell is happening. That’s how private schools `perform better’ despite all schools following same curriculum,” wrote Leo Diblo.
“We should just do away with these exams. One final exam can break you or make you. It doesn’t matter whether that particular day you lost a loved one or sick or just confused for fear of the exam it will make you a failure overnight and your performance from the other exams done periodically won’t prove otherwise. Am speaking from experience. I was the best in mathematics in the whole school but I failed the final exam. Now my dreams and aspirations died because I can’t do a career of my dream because the final exam made me look like a zombie in mathematics,” said Mzalendo Fromcentral.