Despite walking at least six Kilometers every day from home to school, Ryan Ochieng registered excellent grades after scoring A minus with 79 points in the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.
Ryan Ochieng sat for his final paper at the little-known Obambo Secondary School in Nyandiwa, Siaya County.
"I never had enough time to revive my books like my other colleagues in boarding sections who enjoyed evening and morning preps. Though I expected better results," Ochieng stated while attributing his success to God's grace.
The index one out of 186 candidates further observed that his father's death was a blessing in disguise as he secured a scholarship.
"After the death of my father, I thought it was the end of my education career because my mother could not afford to pay fees. I'm happy that I have achieved the results out of the support from well-wishers and NG-CDF. I'm however, not sure whether the well-wisher will continue paying so that I pursue a degree in Medicine," he said.
Adding;
"Hard work indeed pays. I want to thank my teachers who stood by me in my hour of need and have not also disappointed them. The value of the money has also been sorted out through posting of improved results."
According to Obambo Mixed Secondary School's principal Pius Ongonga, Ochieng has not let the school down despite being an orphan.
"Ochieng is one of the three orphaned students that have posted impressive results, others being Christine Otieno and Obiero Michael who scored a B plus," Ongonga stated.
PHOTO/Eric Juma
Further, the school principal appealed for well-wishers to consider supporting him to pursue his planned course.
He revealed that although the school sent several candidates to the university, its performance has declined.
"This year we had one A minus, two B plain, two B minus, and four C plus and others though the mean was 3.4595 against 3.9 for 2022.
Ongonga attributed the dismal performances to school fee challenges and absenteeism.
PHOTO/Eric Juma
