Shattered dreams of KCPE star crushing stones to raise fees
By KNA, February 16, 2023A bright girl who scored 405 marks in Magarini Sub-County of Kilifi County has turned to stone-crashing to raise school fees and help her family put food on the table.
Sera Kauchi Naftali (right) has, however, lost hope of joining her dream school, Moi Girls High School, Isinya, where she was offered a Form One slot but is yet to report due to lack of school fees.
The former pupil at Bandacho Primary School in Adu Ward of Magarini constituency that produced 17 candidates with 400 marks and above, is afraid that her place at the school in Kajiado County has been taken by another student.
Admissions deadline
She recalls that the deadline for Form One admissions lapsed on Tuesday, February 14, this week.
She requires Sh75,789 to report.
Sera, 16, is among four candidates from the school with more than 400 marks who have not been able to secure their places in the schools they were allocated to.
Despite applying for scholarships from organisations such as Equity Bank’s Wings to Fly and the Elimu Scholarship Programmes, and a promise by the County Government of Kilifi, the girl did not get any assistance. She spends her time weeping as she does household chores.
The last born in a family of seven also crashes stones to make ballast for sale, alongside her mother Mariam Rodgers. The earnings are hardly enough to put feed the family.
Journalists found the girl at a quarry about one kilometre from her former school crashing stones together with her mother. She put on a brave face and a forced smile, but her worries were evident.
Sera and her mother appealed for help since the father is unemployed.
Bandacho Primary School headteacher Constance Kanze Mwaria said out of the 17 candidates who scored 400 marks and above in her school, four (including Sera) were yet to join secondary school due to poverty.
Many other candidates who scored 350 marks and above were also still at home due to lack of school fees.
Sera’s former classmates, Mary Kulola Gilbert and Esther Wanyinya, who scored 363 and 369 marks, respectively, and wanted to be doctors have also not joined Mwasere Girls Secondary School in Taita Taveta County for lack of fees.
Plea for help
The twin sisters who from Kanagoni within Adu Ward are appealing for financial help — through the headteacher of their former school, Ms Constance Kanze Mwaria — to report to school.
Johnson Nzai, a personal assistant to Magarini Member of Parliament Harrison Garama Kombe, said the MP was aware of these cases, adding that the fees of all those who got more than 400 marks would be paid through the National Government Constituency Development Fund.
Meanwhile, lack of school fees is worsening the menace of early marriages and teenage pregnancies in Kilifi County.
Human rights activist Justin Kitonyo says hundreds of students in the county have not joined Form One due to lack of fees, noting that this could open up avenues for child abuse and teenage pregnancies.
He urges the government, local leaders, corporates and NGOs to assist such students. – KNA