26 adult candidates go missing
By Christine Musa, April 12, 2021At least 26 adult learners who registered for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams in Kajiado have failed to turn up for the tests citing inevitable challenges.
Of the 264 candidates registered to sit this year’s examination, only 238 are doing exams with one female candidate reported to have died a few days before the examinations started. Out of the 26 missing candidates,19 are males while seven are females.
According to the County Adult and Continuing Education Coordinator Mercy Njiriri, most male candidates cited fear of contracting Covid-19 at the examination centres and tough economic times brought about by the pandemic.
“The male candidates, who skipped exams seemed not to have been well prepared and resorted to excuses perhaps for fear of failure.
The number could have been higher but we managed to counsel a large number who expressed of doing the exams and they agreed to do the exams,” said Njiriri.
On the other hand, female candidates have expressed concern that men are denying them a chance to do the exam.
She says it has taken a multi-agency security and administration officers team to facilitate some women to do the exams as some men bar them from sitting the tests.
The official says cultural misconceptions have been a major setback in providing adult education as some men refuse to share classrooms with women with some men also holding into beliefs that educating a woman will empower them more.
Njiriri called for intense campaigns on the importance of education to ensure more adults enroll in adult classes.
“We are basically reaching out to family units to convince them on the importance of adult education,” she says.
Illiteracy has been cited as one of the major challenges that has fuelled land conflicts in the county as rogue brokers con illiterate old men and women.