Girls in Garissa County have yet again outshined their boys’ counterpart, a departure from what used to be boys dominated field.
For the past three years, girls have been steadily stamping their authority in their national exams something that was noted by education CS when releasing the 2020 KCSE results yesterday.
A quick glance at the performance of schools within Garissa town paints a remarkable improvement and dominance by girls’ child in both KCPE and KCSE.
Although Abdirahaman Mohamed came top at Mnara school with an A- (76), second position went to Fatuma Aden with an A- (74). She was followed by Salma Noor B+, Anzal Noor B, Ayan Abdi B, Hafsa Mohamed B and Iqra Dagane B (all gilrs).
Al Azaar academy the top ten position was equally dominated by girls. The top student was Abdifatah Abdirahaman with an A- (74) follow by Sumeya Abdinazir with B+ (69). The other positions were dominated by the girls.
Khalif a retired educationist and currently a civil society activist attributed the good grades posted by the girls to the deliberate campaign and advocacy put in place some years back.
“We are witnessing today is the fruits years of a sustained campaign and advocacy all geared towards giving the girl equal opportunity with the boy when it comes to matters education,” Khalif said.
“My worry now is that the boy seems to have been left behind. As a country we must also look critically at what is hailing the boy child and bring them at par with girls,” he added.
Speaking to the press, Fatuma Aden of Mnara Academy who wants to pursue clinical medicine at the University of Nairobi said it was not easy studying and maintaining the standards in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“To say the going has been tough is an understatement. Honestly, I almost gave up when we resumed after the long Covid-19 break. Were it not for my parents, close relatives and teachers who kept encouraging me, I would not be celebrating my good grades today,” Fatuma said.
“I want to take this opportunity to encourage my fellow girls to take their education seriously. Over time, the girl child has proved that given the opportunity, they can post good grades and has been witnessed here today,” she added.
On her part, Sumeya Abdinazir said that since her school days she has wanted to prove that a girl child stand equal chance with the boy ‘if and only if given the chance’.
Sumaye’s education was fully sponsored by the cooperative bank. She has eight other siblings three of them at the university.
The three siblings were also sponsored as their father who is a Madrassa teacher could not raise their fees.
“I want to urge the cooperative bank to stand with me in my university education. I want to promise the bank that I won’t disappoint them,” she added.