Our group visited the Secondary school, which homes grades 9-12 (also known as Form 1-4). The school is a beautiful structure built in 2004 and added to since then. Many of the students are the first in their families to advance past 8th grade due to the cost of attending Secondary schools. BLISS offers day classes to students of the Kithoka region and has increased the number of Secondary students in the region from 20 to over 400!
The class rooms are nearly bare, the books are tattered copies from many years ago, and the Form 3 building is only half built. But thanks to BLISS the Kithoka area has had recent success sending students to Colleges and Universities. This is because they rank third in Secondary schools for the entire North Imenti District, even with such low funding and students who begin Form 1 (9th Grade) with much lower scores than normal.
Students often wake before 5am to walk many miles or take an overcrowded Matatu (mini bus) to arrive before the bell rings at 7am and have some time to study. From 7am-4pm students attend classes, but many choose to stay until 9pm attending extra classes, education clubs or study sessions. This curriculum is so vigorous because Form 4 students (Seniors) across Kenya take the Kenya National Examination and out of roughly 300,000 students, less than 20,000 of the best scores will be awarded Public University Acceptance and Government Scholarships. Other students may be offered private university spaces or two year certificate spaces, but students in this region sadly cannot afford to pay for these opportunities.
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