By Amoto Ndiewo
Repugnant cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child marriage and child labour keep many children in Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties out of school.
Former education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Prof Jacob Kaimenyi once said nearly 1.5 million children were out of school in the region . He said some 94 percent of these children had never stepped in a school or were dropouts.
Although Kaimenyi then said the government planned to put up more boarding schools in pastoralist regions, residents like Mohamed Hujale complain that some places lacked such facilities.
‘’Even mobile schools, which were expected to make education more accessible to nomadic pastoralist children, are non-existent,’’ Hujale lamented.
A teacher at Garisweno Primary School in Garissa says that existing boarding schools are under-enrolled. Sankur, Mbalambala and Bura boarding schools and others in Garissa County are such examples. They were built under the arid boarding primary schools and equipped with electricity and running water.
He adds that the diet and restrictive boarding school life does not fit the nomadic lifestyle, noting that even boarding secondary schools operate like semi day schools, with students sneaking out for meals and renting rooms in town.
Another school teacher Mohamed Dagane observes that many school kids often follow their livestock or are child labourers to support their weak and poor parents, even as others marry off their daughters to make ends meet.
Dagane wants education policy makers and stakeholders to either exit from using existing non- functional policies or invent new ones to re-invent the education landscape in North Eastern.
‘’ It’s high time for new policy to enrol and retain north-eastern kids in school,’’ said Dagane.
A recently two-day education conference in Garissa revealed that about 90 percent and 60 percent of children eligible for secondary and primary education respectively are out of school.
Reacting during the conference, Garissa Governor Ali Korane urged residents to think out of the box and come up with workable solutions to boost school enrolment.
‘’Such a huge number of children being neglected is a disaster. Unless we tackle educational issues our development efforts won’t amount to much, ’’ he warned.
