By Amoto Ndiewo
Just as Children Fund projected last December, school reopening early this year would have seen three and a half million Kenyan children out of school due to the biting drought.
A 2021 study by the Global Out of School Children Initiative said about two million children aged between 4 and 17 have been out of school since the third term of 2021.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) also revealed that at least 289,410 children between the same age bracket have dropped out of school in Garissa County since COVID struck up to date.
A recent survey by Education News noted that the impact of drought in Garissa led to a significant decrease in school enrolment, an average of 52% affecting schools across all levels.
Interestingly, the survey realised that high school dropout in the mainly nomadic pastoralist Garissa was as a result of food lacking in homes and schools and according to Abdirashid Muktar, Quality Assurance office in Garissa, food insecurity has left children to either cater for the destitute parent or themselves, making them drop out of school.
“Under such circumstances, children cannot attend school as they will be fending for their families,’’ said Muktar, adding that early marriages too leads to school dropout.
He adds that bad company has influenced some students to join the child labour world that has brought indulgence into the vices like drugs and child trafficking.
Poor learning environment, dilapidated infrastructure and lack of teachers have also causes children to drop out of schools in the region. To add salt into injury, the current scarcity of teachers in JSS has resulted in acute idleness in school which is largely contributing to the high JSS dropout in arid Garissa.
“Don’t rule out clan-influenced resource based conflict wherein various clan herders clash struggling for limited pasture, and water for their remaining livestock,” said Saka Janah, Garissa resident.
In case the clan feels the remaining livestock are too few, cattle rustling and marrying off young school girls becomes the order of the day to increase livestock fortune.
To address the challenges in Garissa, all hopes have been placed on ‘Save the Children’ which has put its efforts on ‘Operation Come Back to school’ in order to increase and retain enrolment.
The organization hopes to work in partnership with the Ministries of Health and that of Education, The Teachers Service Commission, Youth and Gender Department, County Directorate of Education and Public Health amongst other education stakeholders.
Besides, Save the Children is providing lifesaving assistance in integrated health, nutrition, food security, child protection, water hygiene, sanitation and education intervention to children and their families affected by the drought stricken Garissa.
Get more stories from our website: Education News
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
