Education stakeholders in Bungoma County have raised alarm over high cases of boy child school drop out in the area.
They called for urgent measures to address the problem which is affecting primary and secondary schools in the county.
Speaking during national dialogue on education quality and learning outcomes in Kenya at Baptist Girls’ Secondary School, education executive Betty Mayeku said a lot of attention has been paid to girls.
She noted there has not been much focus on boys’ education.
“Girls who fall pregnant while in school are given good care and after giving birth many of them are taken back to school. In contrast, many boys are forgotten when they drop out of school,” she said.
The boys are left to languish in drug abuse and criminal activities owing to peer pressure.
Parents and teachers were urged not to treat boys as outcasts if they make girls pregnant but to be encouraged to go back to school.
Meanwhile, Bungoma education director Jacob Onyiengo deplored the high number of mushrooming private schools that are close to each other and do not offer quality education.
He said the county faces an acute shortage of 549 teachers and called on leaders and other stakeholders to ensure there is goodwill in education sector in the county.
-Munene Maina
Alarm as many boys drop out of school
