The Class Eight pupils who took their national examinations in Kenya in November have now had their results.
These exams are important for the pupils as their progress to secondary school is determined by how well they fare.
Aquinoe Learning Centre entered thirty nine pupils and twenty of these achieved more than two hundred and fifty marks from the five hundred available. These children will all receive offers of places at good local schools.
Aquinoe’s best candidate is a girl who is among the top ten in the municipality with three hundred and fifty eight marks.
These impressive results are not the only feather in the cap for the school.
Aquinoe prides itself on being an inclusive school and five of the candidates have learning difficilties. Most schools, both private and public, would not accept the pupils in the first place as their results would lower the overall “score” for the school in the equivalent of the “league tables” in the U.K.
The Director (Josphat) and staff at Aquinoe believe all children have a right to education regardless of their status. They feel, however, it is a pity that the children with special needs have to sit the same examinations under the same conditions as the “mainstream” pupils. Josphat is aware that there are discussions at Ministry level into setting up examinations at a more appropriate level for these children.
Some children at Aquinoe are following a vocational course in tailoring. There are, at present, discussions into further vocational courses at the school, like hairdressing.