A Secure Collaborative Manuscript Management System For National Examinations, A Case Study Of The Kenya National Examinations Council

Abstract

The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) did declare the use of ICT in all its operations as one of its main objectives for its development. In this line, KNEC has in the recent past embraced ICT even while interacting with its clients and stakeholders. One major such innovation was the introduction of online registration of candidates for national examinations in particular, Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) starting 2011. The secure collaborative manuscript management system project is intended to take advantage of the advancements in ICT and recent KNEC innovations to re-engineer the management of examinations manuscripts process, which is currently costly, time consuming and insecure. This was done by investigating the gaps of the current – heavily manual oriented process used at KNEC, and then designing a secure and collaborative manuscript management system (SCMMS), to replace the current. The main purpose of the SCMMS is to manage the national examination process, from setting of the manuscript from learning institutions, electronic sending to KNEC, verification, moderation, storage in a paper bank and random selection for an examination. The SCMMS when tested promoted a more paperless system that significantly reduces delays in all aspects of the examinations cycle, while promoting collaboration among various actors in examination management, and in a secure environment. Though the initial cost of coming up with the system might be high due to the purchase of hardware-server, software and training or sensitisation of personnel, in long run it would be cheaper and more efficient.