Robinson Fwaro Makokha, one of the two top KCPE exam scorers, has landed a full scholarship by Kodris Africa, a coding curriculum firm.
Makokha of Christ the King and Lewis Otieno of St Peter’s Mumias Primary School both scored the highest mark of 431 out of a possible 500 in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) test whose results were announced on Wednesday.
Makokha said he wanted to pursue software engineering as a profession when he grows up.
Kodris Africa has offered Fwaro a complete secondary scholarship of school fees, coding licences and tools, including a laptop for the four years he will be in secondary school.
Form One selection is expected to be completed on January 16, a week before schools reopen.
“We saw on the news that Fwaro would like to become a software engineer. The skill that takes him there is coding, and we want to set him on a firm footing towards achieving his dreams.”
Coding is one of the most sought-after skills in the world today, and Fwaro is setting the pace,” Kodris CEO Mugumo Munene said.
Kodris Africa teaches coding to primary and secondary schools on the continent.
Kenyan secondary schools are going bigger on technical subjects like woodwork, electricity, art and design and metal work to prepare the learners for a world that is yearning for more practice than theory as a formula of putting many people into jobs creation as opposed to seeking non-existent employment.
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development approved Kodris to teach coding in Kenya primary schools as the country taps into technology.Lewis Otieno will also have his school fees catered for by the Kakamega County government.
A number of organisations and the government sponsor bright but needy young people through various programmes that are catching the attention of international organisations that invest billions of shillings into building capacity and capability right from secondary schools.
Equity Group, through its Wings to Fly programme, has partnered with the payments conglomerate Mastercard to sponsor Kenyan students at secondary schools. Applicants have to score at least 350 marks in KCPE.
For the first time, there was no ranking of schools and pupils in the KCPE exam with the Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu saying it encourages negative competition.
It took the relentlessness of journalists to look for the top pupils and unveil them to the public.
Mr Mchogu’s predecessor, Prof George Magoha, used to release the names of the top 10 pupils in the national exam, also moving away from the culture of schools ranking.
