One hundred and twenty-four (124) pregnant girls from Kajiado County are set to sit for their KPSEA, KCSE and KCPE this year.
According to Kajiado Acting County Commissioner Harun Kamau, 10 expecting girls are set to sit for their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) examinations, 28 girls will sit for their KCPE and 86 sirring for their KCSE.
More than 1.3 million students sitting for their KPSEA for the first time are set to sit for their examinations starting today countrywide.
“It is unfortunate that these girls have to sit for their national examinations while expectant. Some of them are heavily pregnant and we hope they will be able to sit for their examinations,” said the County Commissioner.
The number of pregnant candidates could be much higher because due to the ongoing drought, most families have relocated to other counties in search of pasture for their cattle.
All stakeholders in Kajiado are looking for dropouts in remote areas and even urban cities.
The county is also plagued by old-fashioned practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and getting married young is said to have pushed most of the women to get pregnant early and without planning to do so.
“Aged men prey on minors pushing them out of school. The culprits usually go Scot free and this encourages the trend,” said one of the locals.
The County Commissioner called on the local administration to engage with other education partners to ensure that the expected candidates sit for their examinations.
“Our chiefs and their assistants have been given directions to ensure that all expectant candidates for the three National Examinations from their area of jurisdiction are able to sit for their national examinations,” added the County Commissioner.
On his part, the Kajiado County Education Director Kosgey Kipruto said that personnel deployment and transport logistics are ready for national examinations. He also said that two armed police officers will be posted to each examination centre.
Besides, he revealed that the Ministry of Education is striving to offer food and examinations to learners affected by drought.
In the county, a total of 26,865 Grade 6 learners will sit for their KPSEA exams in 931 examination centres while 25,028 KCPE candidates in 678 examination centres will sit for their exams.