• "Let's all who are here today agree that me and mediocrity are never friends ,we must all up the game," he told a gathering of school principals at Kisii school
• He said the country's education system would cater for all irrespective of grade and thus no need for the greedy and fraudulent chase for good grades.
CS Education Ezekiel Machogu on Thursday said there shall be no middle ground in enforcing rules aimed at safeguarding the integrity of the national examinations.
Already, he said, all systems are set ahead of the starting of the examination.
"Let's all who are here today agree that me and mediocrity are never friends ,we must all up the game," he told a gathering of school principals at Kisii school
The CS landed in Kisii after similar tours of Siaya and Kisumu counties. He will head to Migori and Homabay on Friday.
In Kisii, the CS warned against lethargy and mediocrity in the broader efforts of stemming cheating cases.
He said there shall be no sacred cows and any centre manager found culpable of flouting regulations would be swiftly punished.
He said cheating was often a result of most principals wanting to cut the corners.
"What brings us together is honest and hard work and there must serious efforts from each one of us to do it right," he said.
He said the country's education system would cater for all irrespective of grade and thus no need for the greedy and fraudulent chase for good grades.
The Education CS was accompanied PS Dr Julius Juan and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development chief executive Dr David Nyegere.
Nyanza region has in the upward of a combined candidate force of 557,820 with Kisii registering about 113,000 candidates. Nyamira has 53000 candidates.
Machogu is on a whirlwind of tours across the country part of the preparations for the upcoming examinations.
He said already the distribution of examination materials has been done to various Counties.
Speaking about invigilation, Machogu told Centre managers to vigilant against any form of malpractices.
He separately asked technical institutions to be more deliberate on skill courses if they so help fill the skill gap in the labour market..
Some anecdotal evidences, he said, reveal that most institutions have invested more on theory courses than technical courses.
Machogu said DP Rigathi Gachagua and the president would at some point officiate the distribution of the examination materials in Nairobi.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) Chief Executive Dr David Njeng’ere defended the use of examination saying it is still the most viable way to gauge if learners understood the material content in the syllabus.
He asked for tight invigilation of the exams as well.
"Let's enforce the rules strictly," he said.
Nyegere assured the school heads that there is no exam leakage as being bandied in social media.
Instead, he asked teachers to help candidates revise and study well in preparation for the examination.