The Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) has been urged to temporarily suspend the scheduled KCPE and KCSE exams till teachers resume their duties.
Speaking during a phone interview on Wednesday, Prof Albert Getabu said the exams will inconvenience children from public schools since they had not been adequately prepared due to the strike of TSC teachers over a pay rise.
Getabu said children were likely to perform below expectation with those from public institutions excelling since they are not affected by the standoff between TSC and teachers’ unions.
“It will be unfair for Knec to administer exams at this time with teachers still on strike. It will be a catastrophe to students from public schools and expect dismal performance. It’s, therefore, important that the exams are suspended till the impasse is solved,” he said.
The renowned agricultural educationist alluded further that students might engage in malpractices since many teachers who may act as supervisors may be doing their job reluctantly.
“I see a situation where some teachers will go to invigilate for the sake of getting money and forget about the quality. This will see many students engaging in exam cheating practices which are like a norm in our institutions and the remedy to that is to suspend the exams,” he said.
Knec had ruled out possibilities of suspending the exams till the strike is called off with certain KCSE oral practical’s kicking off this week.
