Child labour, substance abuse and inadequate teachers are the reasons for the poor performance in national examinations, Mwea MP Mary Maingi has said.
The MP noted that Mwea East Sub-county had a mean score of 3.97 while Mwea West Sub-county managed a mean score of 3.297 in last year’s KCSE exams.
“Those are not acceptable scores and we must come up with ways of improving the levels of education in Mwea,” the legislator told the press.
The MP said high poverty levels have pushed children in the area to work in rice fields in order to access basic needs.
“A child is forced to work in the fields during either harvesting or planting to be able to access basic needs like food and stationery, instead of attending school,” she said.
She therefore urged parents to provide for their children to curb child labour.
At the same time, Mwea West Deputy County Commissioner Teresia Wanjiku gave a stern warning to parents who let their children work in the rice fields for money instead of going to school.
“There is a law that protects the rights of children and we will enforce it to the letter to ensure that there is no child labour and children attend school at the right time,” Wanjiku said.
She added that chiefs and their assistants will be patrolling the fields to ensure that there are no children working there especially during school hours.
“We are planning to be visiting rice farms to check where there are children working now that schools are open,” she said.
The two spoke at a meeting hosted by the MP in Wang’uru town where stakeholders in the education sector had met to deliberate on ways to improve the levels of education in the largest constituency in Kirinyaga County.
During the meeting, the issue of drug abuse also came up as a challenge affecting education.
“Drugs are being consumed by kids in primary schools. I thought at first it was a problem for secondary schools,” Maingi said.
By Caroline Wangechi
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