By Washington Okella
Busia County Director of Education Thaddeus Awuor has confirmed to Education News that a total of 163 expectant girls in the county sat for their 2020 KCPE exam in hospitals and at their respective learning institutions.
The senior county education official expressed concerns to the effect that apart from the high rate of early pregnancy cases among teenage school girls, 124 candidates who had registered for the 2020 KCPE exam did not show up for the exam.
He said the department of education had made an effort to trace the missing candidates from their respective homes only to establish that they had been forced to cross into a neighbouring country following the Covid-19 pandemic that saw learning institutions being closed down by the government for ten months.
The County Directory of Education said he engaged the Ministry of Interior to help trace and bring back the missing candidates without success.
“We engaged the Ministry of Interior to help us trace and bring the missing KCPE exam candidates back so they could sit for their exam to no avail,” said Awuor.
He said despite many challenges Busia County schools performed extremely well in the 2020 KCPE exams.
He urged parents to exercise their parental responsibility and protect their children especially the girl child from people out to ruin their future.
