Merishaw School teacher Ferdinand Opili from Kajiado county flanked by students shortly after the completion of this year’s KCSE exams on November 21, 2025. /HANDOUTKajiado county has recorded a sharp drop in teenage pregnancies among KCSE candidates, marking one of the most notable improvements as the 2025 national exams concluded smoothly on Friday.
Only 12 candidates sat their papers after giving birth, down from 26 cases last year, according to County Director of Education, Dr Martin Cheruiyot.
Speaking in Kajiado town during the distribution of the final Physics paper, Dr Cheruiyot said the decline reflects ongoing efforts to protect and support girls in vulnerable communities.
He credited sensitisation programs, community engagement and capacity building among teachers and school teams.
“We are doing better in terms of hardships, especially on pregnancies. Last year we had 26 cases, but this year we had only 12. That did not give us a lot of logistical challenges, and this is arising because of sensitisation and capacity building and engagement of our teams down there so that we support the girl child,” he said.
The county presented 14,720 candidates in this year’s KCSE examination across 163 centres.
The Ministry of Education described the exercise as one of the smoothest in recent years, with no incidents of exam malpractice.
Merishaw School in Kajiado county. /HANDOUT
Dr Cheruiyot said coordinated monitoring teams helped maintain integrity.
“Remember last year we even had to request KNEC to assist us with copters. This year we didn’t have much challenge. It was malpractice-free because of focused monitoring teams very frequent in our schools. We combed almost every school across our centres, public and private, and we were able to deter any malpractice,” he said.
Even as three candidates wrote their exams from hospital due to illness and two deaths were reported during the examination period, teachers across the county acknowledged the end of the two-week process as a major milestone.
At Olkejuado School, Principal Jackson Kasaine noted that teamwork and preparedness helped schools navigate the examination season.
“We are grateful that the exercise has been successfully and we didn’t have major challenges. We thank God for giving us good time,” he said.
At Merishaw School, teacher Ferdinand Opili exuded confidence that performance by the school will be impressive are recorded in the previous years.
He stressed that the school's approach goes beyond competition and focuses on developing well-rounded learners.
“We are glad that the students have done their best. They have been sitting for their respective exams and all went smoothly," he said earlier.
“As a school, our focus is not only on ranking, our focus is bigger than ranking. When people ask if we are going to maintain our first position, our confidence comes from our whollistic foundation, and your excellence is what we are going to give," he added.
With KCSE now over, the county shifts to the marking phase, ahead of the national release of results early next year.
