Going by recent events, the universities should remain the last hope for sanity in the education system, unless they also are OK with cheating. They should come up with an entry exam based on questions drawn from the high school syllabus.
If I was in charge of a public university, I would not just close my eyes and think everything is ok when it's obviously not. Universities should help fix Kenya by emphasising quality graduates. If they receive a critical mass of fakes, these will find a way to cheat their way to graduation.
But sadly, Kenya’s public universities are not models of professional integrity.
Most are like the IEBC – dens of corruption, tribalism, nepotism, primitive politics, exam malpractices, financial and sexual briberies.
We are in a deeper pit than we think. Many nations has standardised tests that are not compulsory but aid in assessing a student's fitness for college studies, for instance, GRE/GMAT in the US.
It's high time we have similar tests in Kenya because KCSE may not be reflecting the student's ability. There’s no need to train people who are unwilling to be trained or are not qualified to do a course. It’s unfortunate to see students struggling to complete their courses, dropping off or changing courses.
This will prevent unworthy students from dropping out in the middle due to the challenging curriculum where more deserving students could have been selected initially.
