Special needs top pupil in Mombasa wants to be a programmer

Philip Karani, 15, who was ranked ninth nationally in 2021 KCPE exam, has two impairments; lack of speech and sight.

Despite these challenges, Karani, who was the top special needs pupil in Mombasa, garnered an impressive 397 marks and wants to be a computer programmer or pilot in future.

The top special needs candidate countrywide Bethany Tahilla Migosi  of Thorn Grove Academy scored 417 marks.

Karani who sat his exam at the Salvation Army Likoni School for the Blind in Mombasa, joined the school in Class 6.

“I am so happy and I thank God and everyone who stood by me. I expected to perform well because of the hard work,” he said.

Likoni School for the Blind, head teacher Elizabeth Ngare said this year’s results were outstanding as they were even recognised by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha on Monday.

“I was touched. When the boy joined the school, he could not see nor talk. We have been struggling with him through therapy sessions and he has been getting back his speech gradually,” she said.

Ngare described Karani as a very quiet and disciplined boy.

“I knew that Karani would perform well, but I did not expect his name to be mentioned by the CS,” she said.

According to the school, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, an organisation called In-Able Kenya, donated ‘talking’ laptops to the learners for them to continue studying at home.

Since Karani loved computers, he was among the beneficiaries.

She also said another organisation, E-kitabu, helped them with digital learning content.

“Karani really loves digital content and does his research on different things online,” she said.

He is also good in Mathematics and English. He even won the best essay writing competition in the country organised by E-Kitabu and got a cash price of Sh50,000.

In Karani’s class, there were 21 registered candidates. Their class teacher, Susan Kinyanjui, is also a person living with disability and she has been in charge of them since Standard 6.

They managed a mean score of 227, which is an improvement from the class of 2020 which posted a mean grade of 195.

Ngare said one of the candidates did not sit the examination because he developed a psychological condition that ran into mental impairment.

“Our examinations are handled intellectually, so he could not handle it,” she said.

The good performance of the school was attributed to assistance from teachers and subordinate staff who supported the candidates.

Despite the good performance, Ngare said the class had students who had very many challenging cases.

“I have never handled a challenging class like this one, we had learners who were emotionally and behaviourally disturbed, a category of special needs," she said.

"I also had learners from children homes who had cases in court, this was a group with different characters and backgrounds."

She said that learning materials for persons with blindness are very expensive and having revision materials is also a challenge.

“We cannot afford that luxury because the braille and material for preparing for exams is expensive,” she said.

In 2019, Ngare was awarded the Head of State Commendation  by President Uhuru Kenyatta for her outstanding performance in special needs education.