Our girls mostly come from the Keyian Division of the Transmara District and a few girls come from other surrounding divisions of the District. Of people residing in Keyian, 95 percent are Maasai, thus most of our girls come from Maasai households.
The Center enrolled its first class of 32 fourth grade students in May 2009. The girls were selected from a group of 100 girls who took an entrance exam and underwent an interview process carried out by the local Board. At the beginning of the following school year 31 more students joined the school, and the same will happen through 2013 when the school reaches full enrollment of 270 girls in grades one through eight.
The first class will sit for their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination in 2013. This exam, which is taken by all students in Kenya in order to continue to secondary school, will determine which schools our girls will be eligible to attend. Our support for the girls does not stop when they graduate from KCE. We will have a career center to help guide the girls throughout their educational life.
The selection process takes one month. Initially, fliers are placed on boards in the local centers throughout the district, providing the date of the interview and entrance exam. The girls come to the interview with one of their parents and, following the interview, take a math and English placement exam. The exams are used to determine the girl’s academic level. The interview helps us determine the girl’s needs, parent’s attitude towards the girl’s education, and the girl’s family history. If a girl is an orphan, then she is automatically accepted into the KCE family.
