Papers taped for security

By PHOEBE GWANGILO
THE Education Department has taken an extra measure to ensure the security of national examination papers sent to schools by using a “blue label” tape.
Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra told The National yesterday it was part of the recommendations made in 2015 to prevent cheating during the annual national examination in grades 8, 10 and 12.
Kombra demonstrated the removal of the security tape which would be done in the examination venue by those supervising the examination.
The removal of the “blue label” in front of everyone means that the examination papers had not been tampered with.
“I want to demonstrate this so you can see that this is a completely blue label,” Kombra said.
“Once it is opened, you will see a mark like this.
“It cannot be put back. Once it is taken off, it’s taken off.
“Every set of examination papers will have a security tape.
“On the examination date, the invigilator from another school will come in front of the students and remove the security label.”
Kombra said there were “one or two more features added in our two security controls” which he would not disclose because of the “confidentiality we have put into the system”.
He said the “cheating” problem during national examinations was slowly being addressed.
“We saw last year in our examination administration a huge improvement in the way we conducted examinations especially in containing issues around cheating,” Kombra said.
“We were able to contain cheating last year.
“There were a few cases of cheating but we were able to contain widespread allegations.
“We hope that we will make (more) improvements this year.”
Meanwhile, the grade 10 examinations started yesterday, with about 67,500 students involved.