The Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has directing the Principal of St. Mary’s Shihome High school in Kakamega county to register the 16 girls from the school who were discovered pregnant and allow them sit for the KCSE exams.
The Education CS issued the directive to the board of St Mary’s Shihome High School in a statement yesterday.
Matiang’i asked the Kakamega county Education director Susan Murerwa to work with local administrators to ensure the girls are registered.
He said he had asked acting KNEC CEO Marcy Githaiga to facilitate the registration despite the lapse of the set period.
The CS said denying the girls a chance to sit the exams because of pregnancy was unfair and against the education policy.
“The ministry’s policy is that schoolgirls who get pregnant should be allowed to continue studying and to write their national exams.” The statement read.
This comes when barely some months ago there had been a case where 20 girls from Chelebei secondary school in Mt. Elgon were reported pregnant.
These rising cases of underage pregnancies has been on the rise especially in Western part of Kenya making many girls to drop out of schools endangering the girl child education.
There is a need therefore for education stakeholders, teachers, parents and the society at large to come up with a working solution to counter this issue.
Measures to control the menace should be put in place. There is also a need to go back to the drawing board and find out the reason to why underage pregnancies are at rise and come up with a formula to save the girl child’s education before it is too late.
Basing on St. Mary’s Shihome Girls issue where the school principal denied the girls the opportunity to sit for such important examination in Kenya, the question remains if this is the best thing to do to condemn the act. Can such punishments help do away with the problem? Can it prevent future underage pregnancies?
Thumbs up for the Education CS Fred Matiang’i who has ordered the school’s board to register the girls and allow them sit for their KCSE examinations.
A need remains for the community to work hand in hand with the stakeholders in the education sector, NGO’s and other organisations with passion for the girl child to come up with a solution towards this alarming situation of underage pregnancies.
