By George Otieno
School Heads in Kilifi County are calling on the county government and well-wishers to come together and help keep their children in schools through lunch programmes.
The children, especially those around Bofa area, have been skipping classes to work at the nearby quarry sites to get money to sustain them. The quarries are not far from schools and have been an attraction for quick money to buy snacks and lunch, as well as keep some change to feed their siblings and parents.
Madam Eunice Kalama, Bofa Primary School Head, said: “This has been the biggest problem in the school for a very long time. The quarry is just a few metres away and the students can hear the activities going on there. The noise and the dust from the sites have also been a huge disturbance.”
The head teacher said the male students are more inclined than their female counterparts, affecting the former’s performance in studies.
The absence of lunch programmes has been a thorn in the flesh as pupils leave school ostensibly for lunch, but in actual sense have joined the labour force in the quarries.
The older boys will always leave at lunch hour as the younger ones hang around for afternoon classes because there is no food at home and they do not have money to buy food from the vendors.
“Some of the parents also go to the quarry but I think they are not getting enough money to cater for their children’s meals. If we can get an assistance to get at least lunch for the students, we could be very sure that our students are safe here in school,” the head teacher Kalama stated.
