Over 500, 000 candidates are expected to sit for the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KSCE) starting end of this month.
A common feature that maybe witnessed again this year, is female candidates giving birth during the exams.
But for a school in Ugenya Sub-county, Siaya County; teachers, parents and examiners can rest easy since this year no candidate is expected to give birth during exams.
In 2017, St Charles Humwend Mixed Secondary School in Ukwala came to the limelight when over half of the female students sat for the exam while pregnant or had delivered.
“It was worse. Three quarters of the 57 female students in form four were either pregnant or had delivered,” said Deputy Principal Mary Atieno in an interview with Hivisasa on Thursday. Mrs Atieno joined the school in 2017.
Things however started to change when organisations stepped in and started outreach programs in the school in a bid to arrest the situation.
The programs which entailed counselling were led by Ugunga based Tembea Youth Centre in partnership with Kisumu based KMET Organisation.
“The school came into limelight after a red flag was raised by the department of education in Siaya County due to high cases of teen pregnancies.
"They approached KMET to roll out a sexual reproductive health project in the school. Tembea came in as KMET’s partner,” said Joshua Omondi, Tembea’s project officer.
Mr Aloice Okanda, the School’s principal says the outreach programs and counselling sessions have so far had a very positive impact.
“Last year, only 10 delivered or were pregnant at the time of exams. This year, our candidates will seat for exams without any of them being pregnant. The only one who was pregnant delivered in July this year,” said the former Nyamira girls’ deputy Principal.
St Charles Humwend Mixed Secondary School class of 2019 consists of 65 girls and 68 boys, making it a total of 133 candidates.
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