Doris Kemunto Mogire, one of the top 100 performers in the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination, was left in tears after being selected to join Kisii National Polytechnic to pursue a diploma in pharmaceutical technology.
"She was a wreck and cried for 3 days in a row and we even had to force her to eat as she was inconsolable.
"I showed her a list of other student placements on the Daily Nation and told her that she was not the only one, which helped calm her down. I had to find a way to help her out of her depressed state as she kept saying that her life was over and questioned why she studied so hard in the first place," her mother, Rebecca Mogire, narrated.
Kemunto went on to state that she never chose the course that the Ministry of Education had registered her on, adding that she felt shortchanged after doing her best to secure her dream of joining the school of medicine.
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"I wanted a degree because my father has always sacrificed so much for me. My dream is to become a doctor, and given the chance, I believe I can make it," she explained.
Having scored a B+ of 69 points, Kemunto fell short of the grade required to pursue her dream course, however, being selected for a course she did not pick nor expressed any interest in left her in a devastating state.
"If you look at her KCSE result slip, you can see that she was true to her word when she told me that she'd put in extra effort in Biology, and she was the only one in her class who attained a B+ in the subject.
"We are not happy about the Technical University selection" her father, Lawrence Mogire stated.
On his part, Vocational and Technical Training PS Dr Julius Jwan, maintained that Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) was part of the educational journey and not a place where failed students were sent.
According to data by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) released on Tuesday, June 2, 2,632 students, some who had scored As, chose not to pursue 'prestigious' degrees in favour of courses offered by Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
Education CS George Magoha described the students as TVET champions, noting that students had increasingly opted to pursue Diploma courses despite their performances thwarting previously held negative beliefs against that cadre of careers.
The Education CS noted that the choices to pursue these courses were from the students themselves as they made the selection as their first and second choices and retained TVETs during the revision of courses.
"We had applications made in schools. They did the first and second revision and most of them affirmed that they wanted to study those courses," stated Magoha.
