GARISSA, Kenya, Apr 30-Gedi Secondary School might not ring a bell in many Kenyans’ minds but it has been ranked among the best performers in the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations.
Located in the heart of Daadab Refugee Camp, Gedi Secondary School registered a mean score of a B minus of 8 points becoming the best in Garissa County.
A total of eighteen candidates managed a B plus with another group of thirty-five scoring a B plain.
Fifty students scored B Minus while thirty-one managed C plus and twenty students scored a C plain.
Only nine candidates managed a C minus while two scored a D plus.
At least four candidates did not seat for the 2021 KCSE according to School Principal Mr. Feisal Gedi.
Yahye Abdi Muhamud led the pack with a B plus of 72 points, followed by Mahamud Mohamed Muhumed with another B plus of 69 points.
Registered in 2017, Gedi Secondary started with only 80 students who flew the school’s flag high.
“We are faced with challenges that include teacher shortage, insecurity, covid-19 outbreak, and high poverty level but we have remained resilient and determined to perform better,” Mr. Gedi said.
In 2020, the national government threatened to close the Dadaab refugee camp, sending fears among many learners at the settlement but the majority have remained focused on their studies.
In 2020, the school posted a mean score of a C+ of 7.41 points after one A-minus, two B pluses, nine B plains, 11 B minus, 24 C pluses, 27 C plains. 18 C minuses, 10 D pluses, 7 D plains and four D minuses.
“Despite our best candidate managing a B plus unlike last year when we had an A-minus, our school mean score has improved and we are proud of that,” Mr Gedi said.
Abdikadir Salat Mohamed from the Ifo refugee camp was the best in the 2020 examinations.
The Dadaab camp in Kenya’s east holds more than 200,000 refugees mainly from Somalia, a country that has not known peace since the 1991 ouster of long-time dictator Siad Barre.
Dadaab in Garissa County is known for its tough life and is a refugee camp that hosts thousands of Somali nationals who have fled their home country for various reasons, including war.
Life has not been the same for thousands of refugees after the national government threatened to close the camp.
The state described the camp as a recruiting ground for Al-Shabaab terrorists and a base for launching violent attacks in Kenya.
On April 8, 2020, however, a High Court suspended the government’s move to shut down Dadaab and Kakuma camps.
The Interior Ministry had given the United Nations refugee agency 14 days to come up with a plan for closing the camps, saying “there was no room for further negotiations”.
Mohamed Hire Dahir, a refugee and a student at Alinjugur Secondary emerged as the best candidate in North Eastern with an A-minus of 79 points.
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