His start in life was not the easiest but he did not let that define his future. Fabian Kaburu, a chemistry and biology teacher at ST Pius X Seminary, took a forced break from school for 14 years due to financial difficulties.
Here is his inspiring story as told by WoK,
Dropping out of school
Mr Kaburu dropped out of school in 2002 while in he was in Form Two because his parents could not raise his school fees.
In an interview with the Daily Nation, the sciences teacher said he was the best student in his school,
“I was the best student in our class. But I could only study for two weeks and then I would be sent back home for school fees. I was able to get a job on people’s farms, and by the time I got back to class, they were almost done with the syllabus. I could just see my mother’s determination and one night I just decided to ‘help’ her by dropping out of school,” he said.
Driven by a desire to support his parents in taking care of his other siblings saw him relocate to the capital city in Nairobi in search of a job.
He was employed as a ‘shamba boy’ on a Ksh1,000 per month salary, which was insufficient to support his family. His desire for a better job motivated him to return to school
In the city, he found employment as a “shamba boy” in Kabete, earning Sh1,000 a month and saving diligently to support himself in Nairobi and his family back home.
“I decided I will go back to school and complete my secondary education. I enrolled at a school in Meru, like an adult school where you study for two years and then do your KCSE”, Mr Kaburu told NTV.
Joining University
The 41 year old sat for his KCSE exams in 2016 and managed to score B- (minus). His journey to university was not an easy one. He attended classes during the day at Meru University of Science and Technology where he studied Education and took security guard duties during the night.
“A security guard at night and a teacher during the day, and again I have parental responsibilities. That was my biggest challenge. The thought of being posted to a university in another district would be difficult for me to support myself, and yet I was relying on the salary from the security job,” Mr Kaburu told Daily Nation.
The father of two graduated in May 2022 with a Second Class Honors.
He is yet to quit his job as a night guard as he has fees and other expenses to clear.
“Since I did not have enough money to pay all my varsity fees at once, when I completed, my arrears and other bills had accumulated to about Sh500,000 so I decided to keep both jobs,” he said.
He has paid most of his debts and only remains with a balance of Ksh150,000.