The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) CEO Nancy Macharia was confronted with ugly reality of child marriages when she was told that a candidate in Kajiado County would not sit her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) Exams as she had been married off.
Ms Macharia, who visited two primary schools in Isinya sub-county after supervising the opening of a container bearing exam papers at the sub county headquarters had asked the headmaster of Kepiro Primary School, in Kisaju, why a desk was unoccupied. Amos Magomere, the school head said the girl had been married off and that the case was with the police.
Mr Magomere also found himself in trouble after the TSC boss found that candidates in the school did not have papers bearing names and index numbers pasted on their desks.
He was at pains to explain why the tags were not on the desks despite having been issued by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC). She asked Daniel Cherutoi, the County Education Director to deal with the head teacher.
The TSC boss expressed confidence that the political uncertainty currently being experienced in the country will not negatively interfere with the Kenya Certificate of Education (KCPE) exams which kicked of Tuesday.
“Children are our future; if we don’t take care of them then we don’t have a country,” she said. “Everyone wants the best for our children. I don’t think anyone would interfere with our children.” Ms Macharia is also confident that the systems put in place by the Ministry of Education will ensure that exams are done in an efficient manner.
Ms Macharia, who was accompanied the acting Kajiado County Commissioner asked teachers and school administrators to protect the gains made with stricter supervision of exams initiated by the ministry last year.
Kajiado County has a total of 16,086 candidates sitting this year’s KCPE exams in 540 exam centres.
Of the candidates, 8,354 are boys while 7,732 are girls.
There are also 100 boys and 11 girls sitting the exams privately in the county.
