Gov’t cancels illegal Siaya mock exams over Governor’s photo

Education Cabinet Secretary, Dr Fred Matiang’i, has cancelled the Siaya County mock examinations.

The Education CS also dissolved the Siaya County Education Board and interdicted officials over the illegal examinations.

The move followed a public outcry after Governor Cornel Rasanga’s portrait was printed on the examination papers.

The Siaya County Executive Committee Member for Education, Pamela Akelo, however, defended the move saying that it aimed at ensuring the ‘pupils know their governor and have a closer relation with him’.

The Ministry of Education, through a statement to newsrooms, however, banned all the inter-school mock examinations.

The Ministry stated that the exams will remain cancelled on grounds that they put heavy pressure on students and are linked to school unrest.

The Ministry further said that education is not a devolved function and can only be run by the national government in consultation with key sectors thus the governor had no legal jurisprudence to print his portrait on the papers.

The Ministry also stated that administering tests so close to the national examinations amount to frustrating efforts by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to adequately prepare for the countrywide exercise.

It is now emerging that the governor spent millions of shillings in printing the exam papers.

It remains to be seen what the governor’s next step will be following the Ministry’s directive.