The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) is a certificate awarded to students after completing the approved eight-year course in primary education in Kenya, and passing the KCPE exam. A KCPE Candidate is a Class 8 student who is eligible to sit for the KCPE exams, which take place over four days in the second week of November.

Grace W. – 2016 KCPE CandidateGrace W. is a Class 8 student who has attended Mawewa School since Kindergarten. Her early childhood teachers remember her as a happy child who loved to play. Grace grew up in oppressive Jangwani, and like many of her peers endured a childhood marked by extreme want. The hardships make her seem more mature than her 14 years.Grace loves being a Class 8 student. This year, she and her classmates are “helping each other crack difficult questions of life and academics.” She finds much joy in learning, and her favorite class is Science, particularly the study of human anatomy and physiology. Her favorite teacher is Mr. Maingi, who makes the students laugh during his lessons.Grace looks forward to the KCPE exams but confesses feeling occasional trepidation. She is praying for a good score so that she may move on to boarding school for her secondary education. Grace admires the high school students in boarding school because they seem so grown up, and they make boarding schools sound so appealing.We at eduKenya and Mawewa School pray that Grace and her classmates will continue to have an enjoyable experience during their last year of primary school, and hope they will all perform well on the KCPE exams in November.