Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo is curremtly presiding over the official launch of the examinations this morning at the Kenya National Examinations Council headquarters.
The release of the results was postponed from the traditional December date to January owing to a three - week long teachers' strike in Septermber last year that paralyzed the education sector.
It’s the moment of reckoning for the over 800,000 candidates who sat the examinations.
The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) will also rank schools in order of their performance.
The 2012 KCPE results will be released against the backdrop of the Kenya National Examination Act 2012 that spells out stiff penalties for exam leakages and other malpractices.
The Act, among other things, will see candidates involved in cheating during examination will be disqualified from taking the entire examination and will be prohibited from taking an exam for at least 3 years.
Whether these penalties have served to deter exam cheating will be revealed today.
According to the Act, Impersonation of a candidate will see the him/her serve a 1-year jail term and barred from sitting the exams for 3 years.
The Exams Act also spells out a 10-year jail term or Ksh 10M fine for anybody found abetting leakage or in possession of unauthorised exam materials.
The Act also spells out a 5-year jail term or a fine not exceeding Ksh 5 million for damaging exam materials.
In a circular released last year to education stakeholders, the Ministry of Education proposed that the quota system that favoured candidates from public institutions remains in place and that the top two candidates of either gender from each district be placed in national schools.
Private schools, however, had since the introduction of the quota system of admission to national schools called on the government to abolish it.
The Education Ministry then directed that schools take their mid-term break between the 25th of February and the 7th of March, to allow for the 2013 General Election as most schools double up as polling stations during the elections.
By Koome Kimonye
