By Hilton Mwabili
Kenya Women Teachers Association (KEWOTA) has called for national dialogue to discuss proposals around phasing out of boarding schools.
Addressing the just concluded 18th edition of Kenya Primary Schools Headteachers Association (KEPSHA) conference in Mombasa, KEWOTA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Benta Opande warned the move is likely to negatively impact orphaned students who call boarding schools their home.
“My son was a student at Starehe Boys and when I visited him, I would meet these boys who didn’t have homes and viewed the school as their own home. Where are we going to take these kids? They are there and they are becoming more because parents are dying and they have no families. Are we going to take them to streets… let’s discuss this before making it a policy,” she urged.
Opande also warned that abolishing boarding schools will expose girls in communities that practice Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) to the malpractice and early marriages.
“I know some of you may want to support that because of the burden that you have and the lack of finance among other challenges. But there are students in the Arid and Semi-Arid Locations (ASAL) areas where pastoralist communities migrate with livestock and the whole family. What will happen with these kids when boarding schools are abolished? I understand in the last few years there has been a policy to ensure that there are boarding schools in conflict-prone areas because students in those places are being disadvantaged greatly,” Opande told the school heads.
In the event that boarding schools are abolished, the CEO said millions of girls in communities which still practice FGM will not only be exposed to the pain and dehumanization, but also be subjected to forced marriages thereby limiting their chances to access to quality education, opportunity and equity.
“So to protect such girls, they must be kept in boarding schools. Because if you cannot force a community to change their culture, then you know what you are going to do to these girls should you abolish boarding schools,” she said.
Opande reminded the conference of G-United , a national volunteering program implemented by the Kenyan Ministry of Education, with three key goals including; promoting national cohesion by deploying volunteers to live and serve in schools outside of their home counties where they gain invaluable exposure to diverse environments and communities.
“In 2016, President William Ruto who was then the Deputy President commissioned a project called G-United; I was part of the project. What was happening is that when a university student graduated, Hon. Ruto wanted University students to visit communities neighbouring where they were born so that we have a united Kenya. Those efforts, although they did not come into fruition, can be helped by boarding schools,” the KEWOTA CEO said, adding that boarding schools should be looked at as a medium for national cohesion.
