Wangarì Njuguna and Evans Nyakundi
Candidates for this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination will have Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) numbers by March10.
According to Education Cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i, the UPI numbers will replace the names and index number of candidates.
Speaking at Murang’a Teachers Training College during a graduation ceremony, the CS said officers in his ministry are working round the clock to process a comprehensive data management information system for all students.
“Each student shall have a six character personal number which shall be used at all levels of education and later in life,” he said. The move, he said, is one of the measures being put in place to help curb irregularities in exams.
Educating the poor
“We have embarked on major reforms in the sector and this is just one of them,” he said. He added that the same data will be used to allocate capitation in schools across the country.
Elsewhere, First Lady Margaret Kenyatta has urged people of goodwill to join hands in mobilising resources to help educate children from poor backgrounds.
Speaking when she graced the 6th annual scholarship awards by the Murang’a County Initiative (MCI) on Friday, she said many children who complete Class Eight are not able to join secondary schools due to financial constraints.
She said these children are usually the beacon of hope in their families because most of them are bright and with outstanding potential.
“Let us mitigate the problem we have by creating opportunities for our children to learn and unleash their potential,” she said.
She lauded MCI’s efforts in enhancing the education sector and urged others to follow suit.
So far, 200 children have benefited from free scholarship over the past six years. Best performing schools were also awarded.
Meawhile, Matiangi has vowed that the government will stop at nothing in its bid to clean up the rot which has engulfed most of the Kenyan universities. He said an audit report done by the Commission of University Education, CUE, will be fully implemented.
He said the report was only a pointer of the decay in the institutions of higher learning, adding that his ministry will use it to correct the mess and restore sanity and integrity in the institutions.
He was speaking at Itibo Seventh Day Adventist Church, North Mugirango, Nyamira county after a church service.
“To us the report is like a mirror we will use to remove the dirt in our eyes and therefore, we will stop at nothing to ensure that systems at the universities are up to their proper standard,” he said..
The report which is yet to be made public details massive management missteps among the public universities among them admission flaws, inadequate staffing, poor examination administration, supervision and research.
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