School Suspends KCSE Candidate For Speaking Dholuo
A Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidate from a school in Homa Bay County has faced suspension just weeks before the national exams.
The candidate and a fellow student are accused of incitement and speaking their mother tongue.
Lala Secondary School suspended a female student for allegedly using her mother tongue, Dholuo, while an official from the Ministry of Education was visiting the school.
Furthermore, a male student faced accusations of inciting his classmates by reading a note authored by a female student.
“We have a language policy, but the students violated it when she spoke in Dholuo in front of a visitor,” Principal Kennedy Nyamolo said.
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Both students have been away from school for two weeks, and their parents are concerned that this suspension may adversely affect their chances of achieving good grades for university admission.
On September 28, the school suspended the female student for speaking in Dholuo, deeming it a breach of the institution’s language policy, which mandates that students use Kenya’s official languages.
Despite the students being in a group, it was challenging to identify the student who spoke in the local language. Consequently, the school decided to separate the students by gender to narrow down the search for the offender.
The male student who incited his classmates by reading the note out loud remains suspended as well. He will return to school for rehearsals leading up to the KCSE exams.
The female student’s mother is concerned that the suspension might jeopardize her daughter’s chances of securing the required grade for university admission, as she has been eager to catch up with her studies.
Allegations have arisen that the student’s outstanding fee balance of Sh25,000 may have played a role in her suspension.
The school board has summoned both parents to appear before them on October 17, where they will present their side of the story and undergo a fair hearing.
School Suspends KCSE Candidate For Speaking Dholuo
