Two KCSE candidates in Embu County declined to sit their exams even after education officials, principals and chiefs tried to persuade them to take part.
One boy, who had already dropped out of school after being registered, said he wanted to focus on cracking stones to make ballast and earn quick money. The other student said he did not see any reason to sit the exam.
County Director of Education Margaret Mwirigi said the two resisted every effort to get them into the examination room, even though the exam had already begun late last month.
“We required one boy to write a statement that he did not want to sit the exam. This was very sad considering that we tried a lot to ensure that every registered student sat the exam,” she said.
She said education officers continued working with chiefs to trace students who had no intention of sitting the exam and to make arrangements for them to do so.
“Education officials would liaise with chiefs to identify students who had no intention of sitting the exam and make arrangements for them to sit the exam,” Mwirigi said.
According to Mwirigi, the county also managed to convince some registered students who had dropped out of school to return and sit the papers.
She said the effort was important even where schools feared such candidates could affect the mean score, because every child still deserved access to education.
Four other candidates sat their exams from hospital beds because of illness or childbirth. One boy from Mbeere North had a condition that needed surgery, but the operation was delayed so he could complete his papers.
Three girls were also taking the exam in hospital after giving birth during the exam period. One delivered a premature baby and continued writing from hospital, while another had been discharged before her baby developed complications and was admitted again.
Mwirigi said the county remained hopeful of achieving 100 percent transition to secondary school, as had happened with the 2017 KCPE candidates.
She added that no school would be allowed to force pupils to repeat class.
