As the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education KCPE examination came to an end on Thursday 37 year old Kennedy Masolo Baraza is lucky to have been one of the candidates who sat for the examination and is optimistic of posting excellent results.
At his former school Tabani RC primary in Tongaren constituency after the examination, he was in a jovial mood interacting freely with teachers and his fellow pupils whom he had been sharing a class after he decided to go back to school to acquire the important certificate saying he failed to get educated early due to poverty status at his home.
Masolo disclosed that in his struggle to make ends meet his friend employed him to work in his home and later decided to take him for a vocational course at Matili Polytechnic then in the year 1999 where he sat for his grade 3 examination in welding.
“After the course I went back to the field to search for jobs and could get temporal ones which could not fully sustain my life, a thought of continuing with education came to my mind.” He said
In 2011 he decided to join Kitale Technical Institute and sat for his grade 2 examinations and passed well. He later Joined Nakuru Technical Institute for grade 1 examination which he also excelled.
Masolo was offered a scholarship to study a degree course in general fitting by a Canadian based sponsor but could not qualify as he had no primary education certificate. This prompted him to go back to sit for his primary education examination.
Masolo who is married with two children says he is optimistic that he will pass his examinations and would wish to continue with his secondary education as well, saying he has realized education is the key to life and is not ashamed to have decided to go back to class despite his age.
“I would like to advise those who may be of my age or even older not to give up in their life as education has no age limit.” he added
Owning a welding business at Ndalu market Masolo says he would like to be an engineer after completing his studies.
Tabani primary school headmaster Samuel Nyongesa said Masolo was a disciplined student at the school who interacted well with the teachers and pupils and they are looking forward for him to post excellent results.
He called upon the government to set up a bursary kitty exclusively for adults who decide to go back to class as an encouragement to continue with their education saying most of them may have not got the opportunity to learn young due to poverty.
The examination supervisor Patrick Masika said he was informed of the case of Masolo having been enrolled to sit for the examination and did not encounter any challenge because he conducted himself well throughout the exercise.
