In a rare show of his soft underbelly, firebrand Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha strongly appealed with pregnant primary pupils to join secondary schools next year despite their conditions.
Giving a progress report on the secondary school admissions, CS Magoha reached out to teachers in Secondary schools to welcome with open arms pregnant students to their schools.
Magoha also notified members of the public to be vigilant and ensure that all primary school girls who delivered or are pregnant join secondary schools come next year-2020.
“Let us work with the Ministry of Interior and my people on the ground to trace children,” Magoha stated, “If they have not come, let us go and look for them.”
Education CS Prof. George Magoha urges parents to allow pregnant students to report for Form One admission DayBreak pic.twitter.com/sQZmapSN09
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) December 2, 2019
Magoha assured pregnant students of Government support, stating that they shall be allowed to take a maternity break to deliver and report back to school.
He, however, cautioned the girls from getting pregnant for a second time after joining secondary school.
During the 2019 KCPE, some 1,083,456 students sat the paper with girls being 539,874 which represents 49.82 per cent.
While Nairobi registered the most candidates followed by Kakamega, some counties enrolled more girls than boys.
These included Mombasa, Kisumu, Kiambu, Kirinyaga and Elgeyo Marakwet among twelve others.
The top KCPE student in 2019 scored 440 marks out of 500 while the second position was tied by three candidates.
Some 9,770 candidates scored 400 and above, a slight drop from 2018’s 11,559 candidates.