By Roy Hezron
The State Department of Early Learning and Basic Education, Nairobi region has come up with a regional work plan that is designed to streamline the activities of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in schools for them to offer services in an organized manner.
The work plan, which was presented during a partners meeting held on October 13, 2022 at Moi Girls’ High School Nairobi, contains terms of engagement and priority areas of partnership.
They identified four major areas of engagement, namely capacity building, research, infrastructure in schools, and child protection, where support is needed.
The County/Regional Quality Assurance and Standard Officer (QASO) Dr. Gladys Malonza, who is coordinating the process, called for open balance in the four areas.
Need for capacity building
Sponsored by the World Vision and attended by over 120 NGOs, the partners were made to understand the ‘situation of children in schools in Nairobi region and related priority areas’, deliberating on how to strengthen coordination, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the work being done by education partners in the region.
The work plan called for partnership in enhancing capacity building of the County Education Board (CEB) and Boards of Management (BoMs) of schools.
It was argued that the CEB needed proper interpretation and improved implementation of national education policies based on the county’s needs, and improved coordination, reporting and accountability of education services delivery.
Further, it was considered that if BoMs were to perform optimally, there needs to be improved parental involvement in school programmes, as well as workable solutions around child protection, improved enrollment, retention, and completion and transition rates.
For teachers, the capacity building pillar should be centred on effective curriculum delivery, guidance, counseling, mentorship, and inculcation of moral values and ethics.
The focus for parents, guardians and caregivers was said to be how to improve child care, protection and welfare, as well as to effectively engage children in a way that will improve child participation in the household, community and school.
Infrastructure needs
Regarding infrastructure, the work plan identifies a total of 968 classrooms as currently being needed in 205 public primary schools since the ones available are 4,639 from a 5,607 need. 107 public secondary schools on the other hand require 1, 659 classrooms, already have 1,230 and so needs 429 to meet target.
2,117 toilets are needed in the public primary schools, and 5,370 are available while the target is 7,487. For secondary schools, 2,624 are required to add to the available 1, 708 toilets.
However, none of the 205 public primary schools have school roof catchment, with only 144 having connection to sewerage systems.
For secondary schools, 100 are connected to sewerage systems out of 107.
Only 91 public primary schools have school fences, meaning 112 need this infrastructure while only 84 secondary schools have been fenced.
There are two primary schools not yet connected to electricity compare to six for secondary.
In 72 primary schools, there are no libraries while 67 secondary schools need computer laboratories.
The need for the regional work plan came after it emerged that most NGOs took their services to only specific areas, leaving other places under-developed.
There was also need to tame rogue NGOs and individuals who take advantage of slums to get donor funding, which eventually does not get to the targeted children.
Other challenges
Some other considerations are gaps in interpretation and implementation of various education sector policies among stakeholders, and unfavourable teacher: pupil ratios that stand at 1:61 and 1:58 in pre-primary and primary schools respectively.
The county had a mean score of 3.956 in 2021 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and 292.85 in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations.
