Kajiado County is among counties that have reported high number of students who sat KCPE last year but are yet to report to Form One nearly a month since schools reopened.
In a private survey done by Education News between February 1 and 4, 2024, hundreds of students are yet to report to Form One as all the secondary schools visited had shortfalls in their admission numbers.
At the same time, the primary schools were still holding uncollected result slips and there is no knowing where these children are.
One of the schools visited is Entasopia Primary School located in Nkuruman on the Kenya/ Tanzania border, which has around 20 pupils yet to report to Form One out of 68 candidates. Two of them were pregnant when they were doing their KCPE, one of them being Tonny Silali who scored 327 marks.
Another one yet to report to school is the top candidate Samuel Tarayia who scored 349 marks whose results slip is still in school. Nobody knows exactly where he is, though he is thought to have crossed over to Tanzania.
Rosemary Letoya, a teacher at the school, informs us that the school is also facing a high rate of dropout.
“They do not come to school during mango harvesting periods. Many of them prefer to do farming in the village,” she says.
To access the school, one has to travel through several dangerous seasonal rivers and forests inhabited by wild animals that include elephants and lions. We had to make calls to several people to find out the safety of the area before heading there.
The environment in Nkuruman clearly spoke of indifference to education. As we crossed the rivers, a common sight was young children swimming as many others are seen around and about the shopping centres, doing nothing of particular note.
Ololbortoto Primary School in the same Nkurumani of Kajiado West has five pupils who have also not yet reported to Form 1, among them three girls.
The school is among those that are yet to be connected with electricity and they depend on solar that is not sustainable. It has only one JSS teacher.
Another five in Oloshobor Primary School out of the 59 who sat the 2023 KCPE are yet to report to Form One.
Daniel Sironka, a teacher, said some of the parents are not able to raise money for their children’s secondary education, and the chiefs have been following up.
In Endoinyo Olasho Primary School in Magadi Ward, four girls and two boys are yet to join secondary school in Kenya, and perhaps have crossed over to Tanzania where they accept Kenyans in their schools.
Lukas Melik, the head teacher, said they have had cases of girls getting pregnant while in school.
In another school, Olkiramatian Arid Zone, three students have not collected their results, one of them having sat the examination while pregnant. The school has no idea where they are though they have been instructed to look for them.
Located in a wildlife conflict area, it was built by the World Bank in 1983 to ensure that children from the region are not left behind in education.
The head teacher Mwende Konda said the performance has been improving each year to hit a mean mark of 260 in the 2023 KCPE.
One striking phenomenon in the schools is that most of the children have eye problems which probably has pushed them out of school. However, those in school have got glasses from an eye care programme sponsored by one Dr Marlene Long and Charles Leshore of Maa Museum Centre for Indigenous Cultures.
Leshore said education in secondary school should be free to ensure children from vulnerable families access it.
By Obegi Malack
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