Report reveals security flaws in leaked exams
The Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) says some disgruntled staff may have disabled security cameras which could have captured critical information on probable culprits who leaked the 2020 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations.
Maneb board chairperson Alfred Mtenje and the institution’s acting executive director Dorothy Nampota said this in Lilongwe on Tuesday when they presented a preliminary police report into the matter to the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Technology.
The report, demanded by the committee to enable it brief Parliament when it meets in February, follows government’s cancellation of the examinations in November after massive leakage of some examination papers.
Mtenje said it was odd that closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at strategic points within Maneb premises, including a warehouse where examination papers are kept, were manipulated to focus on different, non-essential directions by the probable culprits of the leakage.
He also said most Maneb employees at the time were disgruntled by how some of their workmates had been fired and replaced by people who seemed not to have undergone interviews.
In her report, Nampota further said that former Maneb executive director Gerald Chiunda’s administration had trimmed the number of security personnel from the maximum number of 20 to six and that security gadgets such as the CCTV were not recording events.
She reflected: “There is a lot of disgruntledness at Maneb. Relationships were not good between Maneb staff and management. There were a lot of firings and hiring of new staff without conducting interviews…”
Seven members, including Chiunda, who were in the Maneb management team, were suspended on November 11 last year pending investigations and a disciplinary hearing.
Mtenje told the committee that the seven will appear before a disciplinary committee soon and that letters inviting them to the hearing were sent on January 3.
In an interview, the committee’s chairperson BrainexKaise said he was impressed with the logistics which Maneb has put in place in administering the fresh examination which started on Tuesday.
The logistics include the deployment of Malawi Defence Force soldiers and Malawi Police Service to closely oversee the examination administration processes and enhance security services.
Anti-Corruption Bureau and National Intelligence Agency officers are part of the ongoing efforts to prevent examination leaks.
On information gathered about last year’s leaked examinations, he stated: “For us, we have taken it that there was laxity in their dealings. We have told them that they need to beef up security at Maneb. We need those suspended to appear before the committee because they have raw information.”
Earlier, committee members expressed displeasure with the two Maneb officials for not availing the suspended officers to the committee so that they, too, could give their side of the story.
Reacting to the development, Civil Society Education Network executive director BenedictoKondowe queried the committee’s rationale for meeting Maneb officials when the re-set examinations have already started.
During the cancelled 2020 MSCE examination, 154 147 candidates were expected to sit the examination, out of which 72 641 were female and 81 506 were male.
President Lazarus Chakwera ordered that Maneb management be replaced for failure to professionally handle the examinations and that Maneb should re-administer MSCE examinations before end of January 2021.
