The student who topped Isiolo County in 2020 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) with 416 marks, has done it again in last year’s KCSE scoring A Plain of 84 points.
Casimir Ashiki, who was schooling at Mangu High, managed to be among the top 10 candidates in the country, having attained maximum points in the National Examination.
He was joined by parents, friends, and neighbors, in celebrating the sterling performance in the exam at his parents’ home in Checheles in the outskirts of Isiolo town.
Ashiki who said that he wants to pursue medicine in the University, being a way of giving back to the local community, which was not endowed with as many medical officers as other parts of the country, also revealed it was not utter luck, but hard work so as to post good performance nationally.
He attributed his success to having supportive parents, and teachers, who kept pushing and motivating him towards achieving his goals.
Ashiki added that he took part in school co-curriculum activities where he played basketball to freshen up his mind whenever he encountered challenges in the journey of success, but also had various setbacks, especially when academic work became so demanding.
His mother Ebuya Namoya, a primary school teacher, said that her son’s success came about due to discipline, prayers and hard work back in school.
The mother said that her son had grown-up to a man of good character too right from his days at the local Loreto Primary School.
The neighbors who thronged the compound in jubilation, said that success was expected since Ashiki was hard working, right from the beginning of his education journey.
At the same time Isiolo Girls Secondary School attained a mean grade of 6.88, which is a C+ with 51 students attaining a university entry pass, while Isiolo Boys School also attained a mean grade of 6.88 with 41 boys qualifying for university entry.
According to the County Director of Education, Caroline Mugo, 457 students have attained C+ and above, which is a remarkable improvement from last year’s 276.
Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, released the KCSE results, yesterday. He revealed that 127,853 male and 118,537 female candidates managed C+ and above, qualifying to join universities.
By Brenda Kanana and David Nduro