200 former dropouts sit for KCSE exam

Two hundred former school dropouts from Private and Basic Education for All School will sit for their KCSE exams in Baringo county.

The national exam begins today.

The special candidates are aged between 20 to 65 years.

BEFA School in Mogotio has 66 candidates. It was initiated as a result of the Jubilee administration's initiative to encourage and support basic education for all.

Among the 200 school dropouts are adult learners and inmates who did not sit for their secondary school national exams due to poverty, cattle rustling, female genital mutilation and early marriages.

Full of excitement and hope, the aged candidates were jovially rehearsing at AIC Visa Oshwal Primary School in Kabarnet town on Friday.

Ann Toroitich,35, said she dropped out of school after standard eight for lack of fees. She later studied a proficiency certificate course in Early Childhood Development Education.

“But later it was impossible to proceed my diploma because I had no form four certificate. That is why I enrolled at BEFA,” she said.

Pastor Robert Korir, a father of three, said he wanted to take up his diploma in theology to become a lecturer, but could not do so as he does not have a KCSE certificate.

He thanked Education CS Fred Matiang'i for putting up measures to stop cheating in examinations.

BEFA coordinator Francis Cheptile said more than 100,000 out of 600,000 people in the county are illiterate and they want the number to reduce.

The institution started in 2014 as a campaign for old people to go back to school to increase literacy levels, he said.

Cheptile urged the government to pay tuition fee and examination registration for the privately-sponsored students.