Candidates sit their exams in the past. [PHOTO/nation.co.ke]
Former Education Permanent Secretary James ole Kiyiapi has pointed fingers at the state for unfair marking of KCSE papers.
Kiyiapi said the government went into the exercise with a deliberate intention of punishing able students.
“The overall objective of an examination should never be to punish the candidates but to harness their capacities and know where to deploy each,” the former presidential aspirant said.
He said that students wishing to join universities outside the country were going to be heavily affected as the institutions they intend to join will not consider the massive changes at home.
According to him, the Ministry of Education should be held responsible for the widespread failure since it should have envisaged that a section of the candidates were working on joining institutions either abroad or at home.
“As it stands, our universities will have un-utilised capacity because only a 10th attained the minimum qualification grades,” he said.
“You do not have to be so strict as to chop the number of students proceeding to university. It raises more questions than answers,” he said.