Why 100pc high school transition is a pipe dream for girls

At least 1,179,172 pupils sat the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Examinations (KCPE), last April. Unfortunately, some of them did not proceed to secondary school despite the promise by the Ministry of Education that every pupil who sat the exam would join high school.

While announcing the results in May, Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha, assured Kenyans that no child would be left behind.

Four months later, the process dubbed 100 per cent transition, has proven to be a challenge. On August 6, Education ministry Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Sara Ruto revealed that only 90 per cent (590,450 boys and 588,742 girls) of the pupils who sat for the KCPE had reported to school; the other ten per cent could not be accounted for. This means117,915 pupils never reported to secondary school within the recommended time frame.  

Speaking at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development eleven days later, Prof Magoha said Nairobi and Bomet counties had attained 100 per cent transition. Sadly, many other counties, especially at the Coast, had low transition rates as low as 60 per cent.

More girls

A fact-finding mission by nation.africa, however, reveals there are still obstacles barring pupils, especially the girl child, from accessing education beyond primary school level. This is despite the fact that data from the Ministry of Education in 2019, shows that more girls (1,635,466) were enrolled in high schools compared to boys (1,627,485).

Whereas the quantitative data may show that more girls have access to education, there are many who still cannot access quality education. Teenage pregnancy, early motherhood, parental negligence, ignorance on sexual health education and poverty, are largely to blame for the girl child’s inability to join Form One.

A 2020 survey by World Vision established that at least 13,000 girls dropped out of school in Kenya due to teenage pregnancy.

Such is the case for Quinter Wambui, a 16-year-old who lives at Muslim slums in Kawangware, Nairobi. She has not joined secondary school despite having scored 250 marks in last year’s KCPE examinations.

She got pregnant at the age of 14, while in Class Seven. This, she recalls, happened just after she had registered for her KCPE exams in September, 2019. She gave birth in May 2020, just when schools were closed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. She underwent a painful childbirth - the doctors had to operate on her. She still feels pain to date.

Swelling stomach

“I was in so much pain when I sat my exams in April. I could not even concentrate. When the results came in, I was back in hospital for a surgery. When I was discharged, my focus was on my baby. I did not even go to check if I had been admitted to any school,” she says.

To date, she does not know which secondary school she was called to.

The same fate befell Ms Wambui’s sister, 17-year-old Maureen Jelimo. She too, was impregnated shortly after sitting her KCPE in 2019. It took her six months to know that she was pregnant - when her stomach started swelling.

Sadly, the sisters are not sure if they will join high school even if a donor offers to pay their fees. Ms Wambui says motherhood completely changed her priorities.

“I am torn between taking care of my baby (now one year and three months old) and going to school. Even if my fees is paid, I doubt I can leave him in anyone’s care,” she says.

Ms Jelimo, on the other hand, feels she is past the age of joining Form One and would prefer enrolling in a skill-enhancing college such as hairdressing.

“I doubt I can go back to school now. I have a baby to take care of. Something, maybe a job that will give me income will make more sense,” she says.

She always dreamed of becoming a doctor but this, she says, is now a pipe dream. Ms Wambui, on the other hand, wanted to be a policewoman and regrets that she will not attain her dream because the minimum qualification in the police force is a secondary school certificate.

Priscilla Wanjiru, an administrator at the assistant chief’s office in Muslim Sub-location, Kawangware, has been reaching out to girls who have failed to join high school or dropped out after getting pregnant, in the locality. She is currently handling 40 such cases, with at least 10 of the girls having sat their KCPE in 2020.

She is aware of the plight of the two sisters whose mother, she says, has no financial means. As such, the girls have to stay at home and look after their children.

“Although the government has been releasing reports indicating that the 100 per cent transition has been successful, things are different on the ground. Many school-going children, including boys, are not joining high school,” Ms Wanjiru says.

Twenty-seven kilometres away in Mukuru slums, Nairobi, teenage pregnancy still manifests itself as a vice denying girls from accessing education.

Catherine Akello *(not her real name) is the mother to a three-year-old girl. The 17-year-old dropped out of school after getting pregnant shortly before she sat her KCPE exam. She has never been to high school.

Heavily pregnant

Having been raised by her aunt after her parents separated when she was a toddler, Ms Akello vested her hopes in education. However, this plan crumbled when she was forced into early motherhood. She was barely 14. By the time the results were announced, the teenager was heavily pregnant and could not join secondary school.

The child’s father, an adult known by the locals, disappeared after discovering she was pregnant. Her aunt was too busy with the struggles of life, and could not take care of the baby. As such, Ms Akello’s dream of becoming a nurse, died. She is currently a student at a local college in the slum where she is training as a hairdresser and tailor, she tells nation.africa.

With such cases of teenage pregnancies, the government’s desired plans for 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school are yet to be attained.

In Kajiado County, Purity Gikunda, a co-founder of Greenland Girls School says it is practically impossible for all girls who sat the 2020 KCPE to report to high school within the dates set by the government. Theirs is a special school that enrols teenage mothers in Kajiado North Sub-county.

“Many girls got pregnant during the Covid-19 hiatus. When they give birth shortly after KCPE, it is practically impossible for them to join high school as they are now teenage mothers,” she says.

Form One

“Once two weeks elapse before they report to Form One, their chances are given to other people,” Ms Gikunda adds. 

This year alone, during the enrolment of Form One students, the school received more than 140 applications, but could only admit 26 due to limited resources.

Ms Gikunda says there many challenges in the community that continue to tighten the noose on the girl child’s emancipation from illiteracy, as the society equates them to a source of wealth through bride price.

Kajiado North Sub-county Assistant County Commissioner (1), Bathsheba Osiemo, says the biggest challenges in the county were brought by Covid-19. The pandemic not only saw schools closed, but also rendered many parents and guardians jobless.

“Girls and boys were forced to engage in economic activities, with girls resorting to commercial sex, while others became house helps. The boys, on the other hand, resorted to being matatu touts, boda boda riders and at times hawkers,” she says.

A recent research conducted by the Office of the President and the Population Council on the impact of Covid-19 on adolescents in Kenya dubbed Promises to Keep, showed that at least four per cent of teenage girls in Nairobi, one per cent in Kilifi, and five per cent in Kisumu, engaged in transactional sex during the pandemic.

Gender-based violence

Consequently, many young girls were exposed to sexual and gender-based violence that left some of them pregnant.

This year alone, Kajiado North Sub-county has so far, recorded more than 200 cases of teenage pregnancies.

“The figure could be higher,” explains Sylvia Ocholla, an Assistant County Commissioner at Kajiado North Sub-county.

She observes that many girls in the county do not join high school due to early marriages. They are married off to elderly men, handed wifely roles, and impregnated within their first few months of the marriages.

The 2001 Children’s Act in the 2010 Constitution outlaws child marriage. In addition, the Marriage Act, 2014 and the Sexual Offences Act, 2006 set the age of marriage at 18 years and protect the girl child from such practices. As such, anyone who breaks these laws is punishable in a court of law in the country.

High school

“The 200 cases are only those that were reported. There are parents who hide their daughters or take them to other counties the moment they get a hint that we are after them and their girls,” she says.

Aware that many pupils had not yet transitioned to secondary school, CS Magoha, on August 23, led a team of education officials in the search for pupils who had not yet reported to secondary school in Kilifi County. At least 20 children, both boys and girls were taken to high schools on that day.

Two weeks ago, the Higher Education Principal Secretary (PS) Simon Nabukwesi, led another team from the Education ministry and the Ministry of Interior in Nakuru West, and picked 11 children who had not yet enrolled to secondary schools in the area.

The PS reiterated that the government would not rest until the 100 per cent transition of pupils, who sat the 2020 KCPE, to Form One is attained.

Despite the rapid action approach by the government, many young girls like Wambui, Jelimo and Akello are yet to join secondary schools. They all agree on one thing; their chances of joining tertiary institutes of learning and reaching their fullest potential are shattered.

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