MSCE cheating suspects on police bail

Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations candidates who were arrested in Lilongwe on suspicion that they had examination papers prior to the sitting time, have been granted police bail.

Central Region deputy police spokesperson Kingsley Dandaula said the students have been charged with “gaining access to Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) materials without authority” contrary to Section 14, Sub-Section 2(a) of the Maneb Act Cap. 30.04.

He said 24 MSCE candidates were arrested in Lilongwe during the 2012 examinations sitting period.

Dandaula said 13 candidates were arrested at Bambino Cluster Centre on July 13 2012 whereas five were arrested at Kalieka Primary School examination centre and another six were also arrested at Bambino and Nankhaka cluster centres.

“All these people are on police bail. They will appear in court any day,” he said.

Early this month, there were widespread reports published in the local media, including The Nation, that some MSCE examinations had been leaked, with Mchinji District being the major area of concern.

On July 12 2012, The Nation published that it got information from a teacher, based in the district, who got suspicious after several students from various secondary schools were coming to him with questions in various subjects that later matched subsequent examination papers.

On July 13, the newspaper said that the MSCE examinations leakage it had reported the previous day were confirmed after some questions for Mathematics Paper 1, which The Nation obtained the day before the paper was administered, matched the actual script.