The Ol Pejeta Conservancy has always been a strong believer in the role of education in eradicating poverty. An education is perhaps a child’s strongest barrier to poverty. It lowers birth rates, increases economic productivity and equips children with the skills necessary to participate in the workplace. The power of an education continues to provide benefits to subsequent generations as educated adults tend to marry later in life, have healthier children, be more productive at work, receive better pay in the workplace and generally enjoy greater health.

Ol Pejeta’s Community Development Programmes view education as a key factor in helping our surrounding communities move from developing to developed. Our projects have included constructing classrooms and laboratories, providing students with bursary funds and uniforms, donating books, computers and desks and more recently, financing evaluation examinations.

In Kenya, as in other countries around the world, End of Term Examinations continue to be used by the Ministry of Education as key performance indicators to evaluate the impact made by the stakeholders in the educational sector and to assess the progress made by an individual pupil on various levels (school, zonal, divisional and district). 

Realizing the significance of these exams, the Ol Pejeta Conservancy recently teamed up with Project Kenya Sister Schools in Canada to finance the Laikipia East/North District Std. 8 Kenya Certificate of Primay School (KCPE) Mock Exam. This exam is used as an interim assessment of schools and individual students in preparation for the final national exam - the KCPE - which is given in November. Parents are usually required to contribute towards financing of the mock exam, failure to which a student will not be allowed to take the exam.

The total amount contributed towards this project was Ksh 114,000 (USD 1,400), with Ol Pejeta contributing Ksh 62,500. 

This donation allowed 3,500 children, from 54 Primary Schools, to sit for the examination without requiring financial assistance from their parents. The exam covered five subject including English, Kiswahili, mathematics, science and social studies.

We are grateful to the various donors that made it possible for the Ol Pejeta Conservancy to assist some of our young community members to further their education. For more information on Ol Pejeta's Community Development Programmes and to support a particular project, please contact Paul Leringato on community@olpejetaconservancy.org.