A school in Homa Bay County has suspended two Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates for speaking vernacular and inciting others, just weeks before national exams.
A female candidate at Lala Secondary School was accused of speaking in mother tongue while in school while another male student is accused of inciting his classmates by reading aloud a leave-out sheet of the first student.
Both students have been home for two weeks with their parents expressing fears that they may fail to get good grades to proceed to university.
The female student was suspended on September 28 for allegedly speaking in Dholuo while a Ministry of Education official was present at the school.
According to Principal Kennedy Nyamolo, the student violated school policy, which requires students to speak in one of Kenya’s official languages.
“We have a language policy but the students violated it when she spoke in Dholuo in front of a visitor,” he said.
She is said to have refused to come out and admit that she broke school rules.
Teachers who heard her speak asked her classmates to identify whoever had broken school rules, but no one was willing to reveal her identity.
According to the principal, because the students were in a group, it was difficult to tell who spoke in the local language.
The school administration then decided to employ a formula for identifying those who had broken the rules. Mr Nyamolo stated that they decided to isolate students based on gender before determining the culprit.
“Since the voice was of a female student, we had to separate the two genders to narrow down on who had violated the rules,” he said.
“No student could still identify her and report her to the teachers because she was being protected by her classmates. It took some time before some students decided to reveal that she was the one who spoke in Dholuo.”
After being identified as the one who violated the school rules, the student was asked to leave. She stated that she was directed to report back during KCSE rehearsals.
The mother said she is concerned that her daughter may fail to get a grade that will enable her to proceed to university.
She said her daughter has been longing to go back to school so that she can catch up with her lessons.
“Learning has reached a critical moment especially to national exams candidates and no time should be wasted. My daughter has been crying for missing class,” she said.
According to her, she was suspended because of fee balance of Sh25,000.
“I believe the fee balance played a role in my daughter being sent home,” the suspended candidate’s mother said.
School management said they have summoned both parents to appear before the school board on October 17. Mr Nyamolo said they will be granted fair hearing.
