NAKURU,Kenya, Mar, 8 – Incarcerated but free to see a life long dream come true. These were the sentiments of some of the inmates at the Naivasha GK Prison who Monday sat, for the first time, the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams.
Despite encountering a myriad of challenges the inmates expressed confidence that they would do well and even arguably give some of the other candidates across Kenya a run for their money.
The COVID-19 pandemic is said to have affected the candidates’ ability to fully prepare for the exams, however Superintendent Kevin Muhoro said that they were able to support them through the process.
Correctional facilities were equally forced to implement certain COVID-19 guidelines in order to avert the spread of the virus.
“We are yet to fully recover from the pandemic but the inmates have been well prepared for the national exams,” said Muhoro.
The correctional facility, which is the latest in Kenya has an education programme catering to over 1,000 learners.
Reading materials and even inadequate tutors was cited as some the challenges the correctional facility faced.
“We have seen an upsurge in the number of prisoners seeking education and due to lack of qualified teachers we have been forced to use fellow inmates to teach them,” he said.
“We have many challenges like lack of enough books and teachers but we are sure we can beat the odds,” said Peter Moru, an inmate.
According to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), a total of 1,225,693 candidates are sitting the examinations.
Candidates began the exams with Mathematics,English and English composition exam on Monday.
Science paper,Kiswahili Lugha,Kiswahili Insha and Kenyan sign language will dominate day two on Tuesday while on Wednesday, candidates will sit for their Social studies and religious education paper.
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