With only one month left for last year's KCPE candidates to prepare to join form one, it is proving to be a tall order for Thika Town's top candidate Brian Maina Njoki.
Maina scored 416 out of the possible 500 marks.
The 15-year-old Maina who hails from Kiandutu Slums is counting on well-wishers to be able to continue with high school education.
"My dream is to become a banker or an engineer if I am able to continue with my studies up to the university level," said Maina on Sunday at their home in Kiandutu.
Maina's mother, Irene Njoki, is single and relies on washing clothes, making snacks for sale or plaiting hair to raise income which she says is not even enough to feed the family of three that comprises Maina, her ageing mother and herself.
"We live in a one-roomed house that I was given by my mother who is now old and blind. I am the bread winner in the family and things as they are now, I cannot be able to raise fees to take Maina to high school," said Njoki who added that she cannot even afford to take him at a local day school.
Maina has applied for the Wings To Fly scholarship and hopes to be among those shortlisted.