For young Diana Pereira, no challenge could come between her and her success in her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations.
The thirteen-year-old Pereira from Lake Lawrenzo Academy in Nakuru scored 409 marks to emerge among top girls in the 2022 KCPE exams in the county.
When the Kenya News Agency team arrived at the school, parents and teachers were celebrating the girl’s achievement.
The soft-spoken girl said she hopes to join Kenya High School.
“I am very happy as I have seen that my dreams have started coming true. I achieved this through hard work and prayers,” said the girl who wants to be an architect, further expressing: “I know I have made my parents, family, and teachers proud.”
Mr Patrick Kipchumba the head teacher of the school said that pupils in the institution performed well this year.
“So far we have 15 pupils who accomplished good grades. I am delighted with their performance,” he said.
Kipchumba said Pereira was a focused, dedicated and hardworking pupil despite her humble background, adding, that Pereira’s performance had shown that pupils can attain whatever grade they dream of, no matter what school they attend.
“It is not a must for a pupil to study in a high cost boarding school for them to pass their examinations, and Pereira is a testimony,” he notes, adding that the school was proud of her.
Pereira said she was moved by cases of buildings collapsing during or immediately after construction and wants to offer help to other professionals and investors in the real estate sector to avert catastrophes, in addition she says that she loves sketching.
“My best teacher has always been there for me. There was stiff competition from boys but she would always tell me I would make it. She would even call me and we would have tea together and she would tell me I can make it and beat the boys in my class,” Pereira said, further indicating that she was content after beating some of the top performers in her school, who dallied between positions one and five in internal exams.
She held that more girls were succeeding over boys in primary and secondary schools because they were more apt to plan ahead, set academic goals, and put in efforts into achieving those goals.
In the 2022 KCPE, female candidates performed better than their male counterparts in three languages namely English, Kiswahili, and Sign language.
A total of 1,233,852 candidates sat for the 2022 KCPE examinations. Some 9,443 candidates scored 400 marks and above.
“I owe my success to my class teacher and head teacher, who were very patient with me even when I panicked. At times, I feared I was not going to do well but they encouraged me and assured me all would be well,” Pereira said.
She added “I realized that though an exam may last two hours or so, it decides my life. I owe my success to God and I would like to tell every girl out there that so long as they put their heart to something and commit it to God, He will come through for them,” she said.
“I would like to particularly thank my Mathematics and Science teachers. They made it possible for me to get A’s in the subjects,” she said.
She, however, was quick to add that it was not all smooth sailing as she needed the guidance of those who had excelled.
“I had challenges in other subjects, but I kept working hard and it worked,” she recalls.
She stated that she discovered how things work through various subjects, especially science, which made her understand the world around her better. Science was one of her favourite subjects contrary to people’s belief that it is hard.
Nevertheless, to her, every subject was unique. She loved Mathematics, English and Science.
Her mother Truphena Kerubo, lauded the top academic standards and consistent performance registered by the school.
“Hard work and good efforts by teachers are what made most of these pupils score over 400 marks,” said Ms Kerubo.
Ms Kerubo added: “I would remind her every day to work hard and get a ticket to join Kenya High.”
Ms Kerubo added that she was satisfied with what the candidate got.