Monday, May 16, 2016
Photo | Nasra focuses on her studies with ambitions to become a doctor/Ahmed Noor/Ergo
(ERGO) - Somali refugee children who failed primary school exams and were denied entry to high school are being given a second chance at three dedicated tuition schools in Dadaab refugee camps.
The Kenyan education system deems children scoring below the pass mark of 200 points in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams to be ineligible for admission to high school.
However, three schools set up in 2013 in Dadaab by the charity, Refugee Education Trust (RET), are succeeding in raising the hopes and brightening the futures for children who had been branded as “failures.”
Nasra Hussein Deyrow is now a proud student at Horyaal secondary school, run by RET. She feels she is being given a second chance at life, after failing the KCPE exams at Central primary school in Hagadera camp in 2012 when she was 14.
“I spent two years at home after failing the exams,” she said. “I became frustrated and depressed and started talking to myself.”
Her future looked dark and her childhood dream of becoming a doctor was fading fast. She was starting to make preparations to get married, when the opportunity came up for her to join Horyaal.
Now aged 18, her ambition to become a doctor has been rekindled.
Dropping out of primary school, or failing to proceed to high school, leaves children in the camps with a few stark options: girls mostly plan to get married, while boys try to get a job. As work opportunities are extremely limited in the camps, many young people are pushed to migrate illegally or may get involved in drugs and crime.
Noor Mohamed Abdi, 21, is also enjoying a second chance at Horyaal secondary school. He failed his exams in 2012 at Ndugu primary school in Hagadera camp. Noor said he had considered migrating, but heard about the risks of illegal migration from radio stations.
“Now that I have stayed, I am focusing on my education and I hope for a bright future,” he said.
The principal of Horyaal secondary school, Mahamud Said Harun, told Radio Ergo there were 218 students, 45 of them girls, attending his school. All of them had previously dropped out of school. “If a student does not continue his studies, he will go astray and indulge in bad habits which are not good for his future,” he said.
RET has two similar tuition schools in Ifo and Dhagahley camps in Dadaab. Students are taught the same subjects as students in other secondary schools over three years, after which they sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams.