Garissa private schools dominate KCPE top slots

Private schools in Garissa outshined their public counterparts in the 2021 KCPE exam released on Monday.

The top 10 candidates were from private schools with Mnara Junior Academy being the best performer in the county.

Its top pupil Faud Abdirizak Mohamed who scored 415 marks said the region has proved that they can compete with the rest of the country given an equal playing ground.

Mohamed who was the best pupil in Northeastern attributed his excellent performance to hard work and support from his parents and teachers.

He said he would like to join Alliance Boys High School and become a cardiac surgeon.

“My journey towards actualising my dream has started. The real hard work begins after joining high school,” Mohamed said.

On her part, Maryan Aden Abdi who scored 405 challenged other pupils to work hard saying good results don’t come on a silver platter.

“There is this notion that the region cannot do any better in as far producing good grades and results is concerned. That is  not true. We will continue to make our region proud in national exams,” she said.

Abdi hopes to join Alliance Girls High School and become a doctor.

The schools head teacher George Kotonde said the results did not come as a surprise to the school fraternity.

He said the hard work they put in throughout the year had paid off.

“We encouraged our candidates that they could perform. Over the years we have been improving our general performance. We aim at further improving our mean grade,” Kotonde said.

Speaking separately, Garissa Knut executive secretary Abdirizak Hussein also said the results did not come as a surprise.

He said without teachers and infrastructure candidates in public schools will always underperform no matter how bright one is.

"A quick look at some of our public primary schools, one gets the impression that the state has either neglected them or is unable to finance their infrastructural development and recruit more teachers,” Hussein said.

Although the boys dominated in most of the schools, girls also performed well compared to previous years.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)