The government has put on notice men preying and impregnating teenage girls and cautioned them against the vice.
Education PS Belio Kipsang said the society and especially the men should always protect the girl child instead of exposing them to double punishment where they are impregnated at a tender age before sitting for their national examination in unconducive environment.
The PS raised concerns over the high number of candidates doing their exams while admitted in hospitals either nursing young ones or pregnant.
Speaking today at the Meru County Commissioner’s headquarters while supervising the opening and distribution of the examination papers, Kipsang regretted that there has been a slight increase to the number of young girls doing their exams in hospitals this year as compared to previous years which is an indictment to the society.
“We are supposed to protect these children. In most cases, the people responsible are not our school boys because for every 100 girls maybe five were impregnated by schoolmates while the majority of the others were impregnated by adult men.
Let everybody in the society know that we have a responsibility to protect our vulnerable girls by giving them an opportunity to be who they want to be in future. It is not right that a young child barely eighteen years has to be punished twice by giving birth at an early age and later by doing exams in an unconducive environment,” Kipsang said.
He said men must be mindful of the vulnerable girl’s future by protecting them as they are future investments.
“These are very unconducive places. Let’s do co-creation in a way that when you go to bed your consciousness is clear you have done the right thing and God is happy with the work he gave you. Ensure you have done it in the best way possible.
Let us give our children an opportunity to be just children. Let us enable them to realise their full potential. Anybody who tries to compromise their education is their enemy. We want our children to be what God intended them to be in the future. When you wake up, God is happy with what you do,” said Kipsang.
The PS said the ministry has developed guidelines on placement of learners to senior secondary schools where the first cohort of Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) will join in January 2026.
“There are 11 bills that will be going to parliament to mainstream the process and session papers to anchor the full implementation of CBC. When they do their Grade 12 examination, they will be transitioning to their tertiary education in Kenya or outside the country. We are finalising the construction of 11,000 classrooms. We are also to employ 20,000 teachers,” he said.
He lauded shareholders involved in examination monitoring and invigilation because the region has not witnessed any major examination challenges or malpractices in Meru County.
“There are few incidences whereby Private Centres are trying to sneak in phones against set regulations. We also had some private centres impersonating some candidates to do their examination. This year, I can say confidently that we have run a clean exam.
We are concluding the processes of examination by November 22 and there after we go for marking. Examiners are very ready for marking. I affirm this year’s exam has not leaked and few incidences are due to early exposure where somebody takes a photo of the examination papers that have been opened,” Kipsang said.
He said the ministry and TSC shall not be condemning a whole school or exam centre just because of one individual who is careless.
“If you allow the exam paper to be tampered with, it is you who will suffer for it. Our colleagues in the ministry of ICT have done a great job in dealing with cyber crime,” he said.
Kipsang said MPs were given a conditional grant of Sh 4 billion for construction of classrooms through CDF and were requested to match for every shilling.
“We intend to construct 18,000 classrooms by the end of January next year. We are on course in implementing CBC. This is the first time we are changing the education system from PP1, then PP2, Junior school and senior secondary school.
We did the national needs assessment where there were a lot of engagements through national conferences so that we can orientate ourselves for our children not only accumulate knowledge but gain skills and competences. We are preparing our children tandem with the way the world is moving, including research and new ways of doing things,” Kipsang said.
He said they are now finalising Junior Secondary Schools noting in 2026 the ministry will embark on the final phase which is the Senior Secondary Schools.
