Tension is always palpable when the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results are about to be announced.
While a section of these candidates are celebrated for performing exceptionally well, another quarter scores grades that leave them dejected and even rejected by their family members.
As the curtain falls on KCSE examinations, Kenyans will always remember how momentous the occasion to announce the results by the Education minister was every year.
Those who score ‘E’ are considered and seen as failures.
This is what inspired Ayub Simba Njagi to found Kenya ‘E’ Graders Association where he also doubles as chairman.
‘E’ Students
Having scored ‘E’ in the 2011 KCSE exams, Ayub teamed with others who scored the same grade to form Kenya ‘E’ Graders Association.
Speaking to a local daily, Njagi recalled how life became hard with the demise of his mother. His best score was a D- (minus) in English.
“Life became hard when my mother died in 1998. I performed best in English, in which I scored D- (minus). I however failed in the rest of the subjects thus the grade. I also scored an E in my KCPE,” he told the Nairobian.
This made him take a minute to reevaluate his life and how best to move forward after the disappointing score.
“I sat down and researched on how people like me move forward in life. I shared my findings with colleagues, who assisted me to come up with the association’s constitution before registering it. To join the group one pays Sh200 for lifetime membership,”Njagi told the same publication.
Approaching NYS
To create opportunities for its members, the group wrote to the National Youth Service (NYS) with a request to the director to have them absorbed into NYS programmes. They never got a response.
In 2018, the group came up with a noble idea to gift the then Education CS Amina Mohammed with her portrait, football and wooden trophy made by the group’s members.
“We just want to meet and appreciate the CS and share with her the potential of E graders,” Njangi shared.