{"id":29835,"date":"2016-10-29T07:13:12","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T07:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kenya-bans-clipboards-to-curb-exam-cheating-at\/"},"modified":"2016-10-29T07:13:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T07:13:06","slug":"kenya-bans-clipboards-to-curb-exam-cheating-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kenya-bans-clipboards-to-curb-exam-cheating-at\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya bans clipboards to curb exam cheating at schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Schoolchildren in Kenya will be barred from entering examination rooms with clipboards and geometry set boxes in a bid to curb cheating, the education ministry has said.}<\/p>\n

The directive also bans the use of mobile phones near examination centres.<\/p>\n

Cheating cases in secondary schools rose by up to 70% last year, leading to arrests and the cancellation of results for 5,000 students.<\/p>\n

More than 1.5 million children will start writing examinations next week.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Dickens Olewe says many children use clipboards as a flat base for writing on as desks are often uneven.<\/p>\n

But the ministry believes that some pupils cheat by writing notes on them to help them answer questions.<\/p>\n

It also says geometry instruments will now have to be carried in a “clear see-through bag”.<\/p>\n

In July, Education Minister Fred Matiang’i blamed “cheats” for being behind a wave of arson attacks – more than 100 secondary schools were burnt down by pupils.<\/p>\n

He said that students who were angry with the government’s plans to end cheating were behind the attacks.<\/p>\n

Mr Matiang’i has blamed a “cartel”, including teachers, for being behind exam cheating.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the national examinations board was disbanded, some senior managers fired and nearly 200 people, including teachers and police officers, were arrested and charged over exam malpractices.<\/p>\n

A education ministry statement says the new rules will “seal loopholes that have previously enabled students to cheat”.<\/p>\n

Other measure that have been introduced to clamp down on cheating include putting head teachers in charge of exam administration at their schools, “to make them accountable”.<\/p>\n

Examination papers are being stored at several central locations under 24-hour armed police surveillance where access will be limited to prevent “leakage”.<\/p>\n

According to Kenya’s private Daily Nation newspaper, a total of 577,338 children at primary schools and 952,473 students at secondary schools will be writing examinations from 1 November for about a month.<\/p>\n

Only teachers and students involved in examinations are to be allowed on school premises during that time, the education ministry said.<\/p>\n

\"Clipboards<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Schoolchildren in Kenya will be barred from entering examination rooms with clipboards and geometry set boxes in a bid to curb cheating, the education ministry has said.} The directive also bans the use of mobile phones near examination centres. Cheating cases in secondary schools rose by up to 70% last year, leading to arrests and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29835"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29835"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}