How public school is giving dropouts a second chance

For a region that often hits the headlines over teenage pregnancies that lead to school dropouts, a new public secondary school in Kilifi with a vision of offering totally free education has come as a saviour to many.

On February 9 this year, Kilifi North Member of Parliament Owen Baya officially opened the Gede Mixed Secondary School in Maghangani village in the remote areas of Watamu Ward whose construction was funded by the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).

By early March, the school had admitted 70 students in Form Two and 315 in Form One. 

Ten out of the 315 Form Ones had scored 300 marks and above in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams but failed to join national schools for lack of school fees. The highest among them had scored 385 marks.

Apart from the Form Ones, there are students in Form Two who had dropped out of school including young mothers whose dreams of going to school were cut short by early pregnancies and had to stay at home.

Mr Baya revealed that many children in Gede did not transition to Form One after their KCPE examinations.

According to the legislator, children from Gede who fail to join Form One become beach boys, curio sellers or fishermen for an income and others end up becoming drug addicts, while girls engage in commercial sex, leading to early pregnancies.

Many families in the area are poor and unable to finance their children’s education.

“Having a school in this area is giving hope to the community because many children walk in the morning to the beaches and this is where their life is made miserable, but children from this area who have gone to school properly have succeeded. That is why I am confident that if I invest in education here, I will uplift the community,” he said.

At the school, students are allowed in class with their former primary school uniforms as parents are given time to get the official ones.

The Nation found some of the students bare foot with home clothes.

The nearest secondary schools in the vicinity are Gede Secondary School which is a boys school, and Ngala Memorial Secondary School, a boarding school which many poor students cannot afford.

The school has attracted students from Madunguni, Magumoni, and Jacaranda, the furthest villages in Watamu, and the Kaloleni sub county.

A widow, Ms Christine Salama, said the school was welcome relief for women with regards to hustling for school fees.

“Men have run away from their responsibilities and women are carrying the burden,” she said.

The mother of seven said she could not afford school fees for her three children in secondary school since the money she gets from her construction work was not enough.

She said that jobs are becoming difficult to find and often goes for days without income. 

Another parent, Ms Zainab Idd, said she could not afford school fees for her two sons since she was nursing her sick husband.

Principal Stephen Katana said the school has offered equal opportunities for boys and girls to access education with ease.

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