The pioneer students who were admitted to Munyeki in January of 1970 all started in standard one, regardless of their age. It was a new school starting from Standard one and any parent who wanted their children to start school there had to register them in standard one, regardless of the grade they were in back in Gikuyu. It was the only available option.
After independence, the Pioneer Parents were back and forth between Gikuyu and OlKalou organizing the purchase of their farms. Then came the task of settling on the new farms, purchasing livestock, constructing a family home, furnishing it, while breaking ground to plant their first crop. With all that going on in their new lives, and no schools in the Settlement Scheme to enroll their children, that is how a lot of children missed the opportunity to start school at the normal age, and those who had already started school in Gikuyu, did not have a school for a horizontal transfer, to enable them continue in the same grades they were already in. That is why children who were ten years and older were now entering standard one at Munyeki with students half their age. I can only imagine how frustrating and humiliating that must have been for those older students.
Some students were as tall as the teachers, and some of the boys were already growing a beard and their voices had broken. Some girls already looked like their mothers with full chests. I remember some girls who dropped out when we were in standard four or five, got married and had babies. We met them in town shopping for their families with babies strapped on their backs, and it felt strange thinking we were in the same class just a few years back. Some of those former classmates at Munyeki have children who are only a few years younger than I, and I feel strange being introduced as a former classmate of their mother, who is now a great grandmother.
But for the majority who endured, the focus was to get an education that had eluded their parents, and now they finally had the chance in this brand new school, in their new home, OlKalou.
