By Cally Imbai
Parents, community and the Board of Management of Munenga Primary School have called on the national government through the Ministry of Education to register and take over the school whose KCPE candidates performed exemplarily well in 2021 KCPE.
The community-based school is located in Ematiha Sub-location, Navakholo Sub-county in Kakamega County.
Munenga Primary school had its pioneer standard 8 pupils sit for KCPE this year to produce some of the best candidates in the region.
The school had a total of 22 candidates, 2 of whom scored above 300 marks, 10 scored between 250 and 300 marks, 5 ranged from 200 to 250 marks, whereas the remaining 5 scored between 129 and 200 marks, averaging a grade of 244.6.
“Despite the fact that we do not have good infrastructure, books and other required facilities, we managed to prepare our candidates well through the sacrifice of our unpaid teachers, the community and well-wishers,” said James Indongole, the BoM Chair and a retired teacher.
The school, established in 2015 through an initiative of the community led by Indongole, lacks virtually everything in terms of classrooms, text books, teachers and even toilets to qualify as a standard school.
Despite all the challenges the candidates defied all odds to emerge successful in KCPE. The school is not even a registered examination centre.
Stephen Inyangala, the school head teacher, said the teachers are paid from the parents’ pockets and appealed to the government to intervene and employ teachers so that the burden can be lifted.
“The school started with only 35 pupils who ranged from class (grade) 1 to 3 but currently we are having 289 pupils sharing the 8 mud-plastered classrooms. We want to ask the government through the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to post teachers to this school to spare parents the burden of paying teachers,” the head teacher appealed.
The BoM chairman thanked the Ministry of Education office at the sub county for visiting and providing advice on registration of the school.
“We are appealing to the government through the Ministry of Education and the area MP Emmanuel Wangwe to help expedite the takeover process so that it can be enlisted among public schools in Kenya,” Indongole appealed.
One of the parents Amos Ingutia said the school was a gift for the community because other schools are located far away.
“Other schools are located far away; for instance Ematiha and Emulama primary schools are 6km away, Ewamakhumbi 7 km, and Emulakha 9 km away,” he remarked.
The school has only four P1 trained teachers and other 7 volunteers. The classrooms are mud-walled with earthed floors. The few desks accommodate some pupils as the rest sit on the bare floors during lessons.
