By Felix Wanderi
More than 40,000 students are set to join secondary schools within Kiambu county on August 2nd this year.
This was said by the Kiambu County Director of Education (CDE), Mr Victoria Mulili in Kiambu town who noted that the number of students being admitted to schools in Kiambu shows that the county has the capacity to absorb students from the county and from elsewhere.
“On 2nd August we are expecting over 40,000 form one students to enrol in schools in Kiambu county. This that shows that the county has capacity to absorb not only students from Kiiambu but also from elsewhere,” said Mulili.
Governor James Nyoro said that though there were many students coming in to be admitted in the Kiambu county schools, they were aware that Kiambu students who joined particularly the national schools that are within the county are very few.
“We have been in discussions over the issue because Kiambu county hosts the national schools and we feel that there is an obligation on the part of the national government to make sure that they give us preference so that we have more numbers of our students going to our national schools,” noted Nyoro.
Mulili said Kiambu education performance was on an upward trajectory whereby 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) mean grade went up to 275 compared to a mean of 274 in 2019 and 268 in 2018.
“We have set a target of education performance of 280 for the year 2021 and that is a target we are promising that we shall achieve,” said Mulili
Mulili said a total of 42,453 students sat the 2020 KCPE exams, 21,345 boys and 21,108 girls respectively.
The CDE said in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) last year’s performance the county managed a mean score of 4.4 up from 4.3 in 2019 and 3.9 as compared to 2018. 32,411 students sat the exams, 15,796 boys and 16,615 girls.
Nyoro said they are aware that parents are struggling to take their children back to school.
“The number of applications that the county government has received for bursaries is overwhelming. We are doing everything we can to make sure we reach out to as many needy cases as possible and in March this year we disbursed Sh100 million in bursaries,” said Nyoro.
Mulili said the Ministry of Education encourages partners who would wish to partner with the ministry to come on board.
“The partnership is very critical enable us to educate all our youth and with their help we shall be able to achieve all our targets in the county and in the country at large,” said Mulili.
She, however, said that the ministry appreciates all efforts and good gesture of the well-wishers who donate bursaries to needy students to see them through secondary and perhaps university education. “All other partners who have come on board to partner with MoE should make sure our youth do not get wasted in the village,” he added.
