‘Alliance High ready for KCSE’

Alliance High School students celebrate the 2014 KCSE results. The institution had 123 As. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

Alliance High School candidates have said they are well prepared for the national exams, even as teachers in public schools continue to stay away from classrooms.

The students are studying in groups with the assistance of their tutors who reside within the institution.

Out of about 70 teachers at the national school, 52 of them live within the school.

Principal David Kariuki said their candidates are prepared for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education scheduled for next month.

Mr Kariuki further said the school cannot send students home as suggested by teachers' unions, saying they can only do so on instructions of the Education ministry.

"We can only send them home if the Ministry of Education instructs us to do so," he reiterated.

He said the students were willing to study on their own and therefore there was no valid reason to close the school since some of them come from far places like Mandera and Turkana.

A visit to the school revealed that learning was ongoing despite the teachers' strike that has left several public schools paralysed, sending panic among candidates.

Kariuki said the national exams should not be postponed as suggested by other education stakeholders.

Some of the candidates who spoke to The Standard said they would not want the exams be postponed.

"Postponing the exams will be a frustration to us because we are well prepared to sit for the exams even today," said Moses Wekesa, a Form Four student.