Robotic engineering, medicine are top career dreams for best KCPE pupils
Unlike the previous years when a significant number of primary school top performers expressed interest in medicine as their dream career, some of the 2021 KCPE best candidates have different ideas for their profession.
Take top Magata Bruce Makenzie, from Gilgil Hills Academy for instance. He wants to join Alliance Boys, and thereafter pursue Robotic Engineering studies in the university.
Makenzie who emerged top after scoring 428 points out of the possible 500 points says he expected he would pass the national test, but not to top the list, attributing his success to hard work and putting in extra hours.
“I expected to pass but not be at Kenya’s top. Studying extra hours, and in my free time is what has led to this success. I now have a good head start and I hope to fulfill my dream,” he said.
Robotics engineering is a field that centers on building machines that replicate human actions. A robotics engineer creates these applications or autonomous machines (robots) for industries such as mining, manufacturing, automotive, services, and more.
Born and raised from a humble background, Edwine Oduory, 15, from Celtel, Mombasa County, is celebrating after scoring 402 points.
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Edwine, who is the last born in a family of six children has been a pupil at Bridge Majengo Mapya Academy Mombasa County for 7 years and attributes his success to his teachers who mentored him.
Edwine dreams of becoming a medical scientist and believes he will one day bring change to his community, especially to his family.
In the informal settlements of Mukuru Kwa Njenga in Nairobi, we meet Florence Kwamboka, who braved financial hardship to earn impressive results, too.
Kwamboka, 15, who schooled at Bridge kwa Njenga in Nairobi scored 401 marks having enrolled in the school eight years ago.
She has credited her success to her teachers who have been supportive and hope to join her dream school, Alliance Girls, and thereafter become an architect.
She has however advised her fellow learners that “no matter what they face, they should never give up because obstacles will always be on the way and even after the exam results are out whether they pass or fail, they should always remember that failure is inevitable and the quicker they move on, the faster they will get to their destination.”
Kwamboka’s colleague Joyce Kemunto,15, also scored 401 marks in the national examinations. She believes she will join Alliance Girls High School and later study neurosurgeon at the university. Joyce feels people incur heavy expenses going to India for treatment and she would love to be one of the few neurosurgeons in Kenya. Education CS George Magoha acknowledged that the private schools performed better that their public in rankings on top students, taking 13 of the top 14 places.
Learners from academies scooped 11 of the top 14 slots, even as top marks continued to slide downward over five years.
In the 2021 KCPE, the number of candidates who scored 400 marks and above increased by 46.5 percent to 11,857 pupils up from 8,091 in 2020 and 9,673 in 2019.
Similarly, about 72.37 percent of the 1.2 million candidates who sat the exam scored below 300 marks. The number of candidates who scored less than 100 marks increased to 1,170 compared to 307 in the previous year.
Prof. Magoha congratulated the stars of the 2021 KCPE for the remarkable results, lauding the teachers and parents for their good performance noting the challenges that the country faced during the period.
