Pain of exam uncertainty for parents and candidates

Before schools were indefinitely closed, my daughter was burning the midnight oil to pass her national exams and, hopefully, gain admission to a national school. She is a candidate in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams.

Many nights, I’d see the light in her bedroom on way past midnight. When I peeped into her bedroom, I’d find her seated on the bed with books on her lap and others on the bed all around her. Other nights, when I woke up at 3am to pray, she would wake up to study. There were times I would tell her to sleep, because I thought she was driving herself too hard.