A standard 8 pupil at Shella Primary reading quietly under the shade of an avocado tree
When the results of the KCPE exams (the exams all grade 8 students in primary school must take to qualify for secondary school) were announced a few weeks ago, we awaited with great anticipation to see how our schools in Lamu did. Lamu is one of the most marginalized areas in Kenya, and the schools have struggled, even those that we have worked with. We were over the moon then, when we found out that not only did Shella Primary improve its mean score, but it actually set a new record for the school. The school jumped from 233 in 2014 to 300.5 in 2015, which is truly incredible. The head teacher of the school wrote us a letter, saying that the KEY Library motivated the students to read, study, and allowed them to improve their performance not only in English, but across all subjects. This is partly because we gave books across all subject areas, but also because when your English improves, you can better understand and answer the questions in the exam, be they math, sciences, or social studies. This has been wonderful motivation for us, and a good lesson to be patient for strong results after donating a library, as sometimes they can take a few years to manifest.