Evans Aima Orwongo has always dreamt of obtaining professional certification to empower him, but it wasn’t until last year that the Competency Curriculum gave him hope.
The man who has struggled to achieve quality education and certification for the last five decades was born in 1947 at Kanyimbo village 1947.
He enrolled at standard one in Kebere Primary School near his home.
He studied here for two years before transferring to Buyonge Primary School, where he successfully passed his Common Entrance Examination. However, the death of his mother, Nyambuteri Orwongo, disturbed him and forced him to leave school to support his widowed father and his younger siblings.
He did menial work in the village to support himself and his siblings until 1975, when he decided to join Tendere Intermediate School to pursue quality education and secure good employment.
He sat for the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) from the school. He scored grades C, C, and D in Mathematics, General Paper, and English, respectively, but his failure in English prevented him from proceeding to Form One.
His zeal for quality education forced him to repeat standard seven at Tendere Primary School, where he scored C+ in each of the three subjects, allowing him to proceed to Form One at Nyangweta Secondary School after marriage.
“In those days, you could marry and continue with school together with your children.”He says.
He attended Kenya Junior Secondary School Education (KJSE) in Form Two, where he excelled and earned qualifications that could enable him to proceed to higher levels or secure employment for survival.
After staying at home for two years, he stole his father’s heifer and sold it for Ksh72 to afford a fare to travel to Kisumu to look for employment.
He was employed at Koru in Kisumu County as a manager in a quarry mine, overseeing more than 40 labourers and earning Shillings 150 per month.to
After working here for 7 years, he met a friend who hinted him of green pastures in Kericho.
He met a woman trader there who employed them to roast and sell maize along Kenyatta Road in Kericho, earning them shillings 200 per month for two years.
It was when he was in Kericho town that he received news about his father’s sickness.
“In all these years, my father was longing to see me and had forgiven me for selling his heifer without his consent, ” he said.
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He went back to his Kanyimbo village and took his ailing father to Asumbi Hospital in Homa Bay County, where he received minor surgery for an eye cataract that blurred his sight.
The father recovered and stayed for ten years after surgery before dying a natural death.
Evans Aima began supporting his six children to acquire quality education and secure employment in various sectors both within the country and abroad.
One of my sons is a senior accountant in one of the great banks in the country, and my only daughter is in the catering industry.”He said
He encourages parents to support their children in embracing education as the best way to improve the lives of low-income families.
Mr Aima, now 79 years old, yearns to acquire a Professional certificate to enable him to achieve his dream of teaching people on the importance of controlling soil erosion and taking care of the environment by planting trees to improve food security in the country.
He curses the old 7-4-4 and 8-4-4 education systems, which never certified competencies in their educated populace, unlike the current CBC, which offers a wider chance of success in life through competence and talent certification.
Evans Aima now wants to join one of the local Technical and Vocational Training Institutes to obtain a paper certification in Agriculture, enabling him to teach people.
He claimed that he sought admission at Orogare Technical and Vocational Education Training in Sameta Sub-county but was denied a vacancy because of his old age.
He thanks the Kineni Vocational Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) management for admitting him to pursue a course in his pet subject, Agriculture, next year.
By Enock Okong’o.
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