Student rejected at home wins UK’s top 10 best award

A Kenyan girl who performed abysmally in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) that no high school was interested in admitting her has now been      awarded a prize for being among the top ten best students in the United Kingdom.

Gladys Chepkirui Ngetich got 298 out of a total of 500 marks at a primary school as against the 472 marks scored by the national best student.

She failed specifically in English and Kiswahili languages by 45 per cent and 56 per cent respectively, thus it became impossible for her to gain admission in any of the country’s secondary schools.

Gladys’s mother kept prospecting schools that could possibly admit her until she got to Mercy Girls’ Secondary School in Kericho County.

Unfortunately, when Mercy Girls’ Secondary School examined her she failed the entrance exam, which meant that she was not going to be admitted.

However, surprisingly, headmistress of the school, Josephine Anyango did not throw Gladys away. She said she had seen a great potential in the young girl despite her failure, and admitted her in her school.

In a facebook post, Gladys said, “I remember the school principal taking my mum aside and having a lengthy conversation after my admission test. Mum told me later the headmistress had informed her I had not passed the test very well.

“I was not surprised myself because I had performed relatively dismally in the two languages in KCPE and the admission test itself tested the languages and Mathematics. Mum further confided in me that nevertheless, the headmistress had chosen to give me admission in her school because she saw a great potential in me.”

To the shock of everyone, she emerged top in Kenya National Certificate of Secondary Education exams four years later which earned her admission at the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at JKUAT where she graduated with distinction.

He story brings to scrutiny, the current state of affairs in Ghana where admission into schools is based solely on grades acquired in a lower level of education without looking beyond the figures.

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