Most schools in Embu County have not fully complied with safety standards as spelled out under the government’s safety manual for schools, a study by education experts has revealed.
Disaster risk reduction, the research indicated, has always remained a prerequisite hence the need for a safety budget, a safety committee, and a guidance and counselling team – which is the most absent in the County’s institutions.
While counselling teams are a must in schools today, few institutions have formed them yet they are known to play a key role in directing behaviors compliant with the recommended safety standards in schools.
The research done by three University of Nairobi researchers – Grace Wairimu Ndung’u, Petronila M. Kingi and Jeremiah M. Kalai – and published in a leading academic journal, collected data on issues such as safety, drug abuse and corporal punishment in boarding secondary schools.
Basic observation by Education News determined that safety measures in most secondary schools remained minimal raising questions as to why school managements shied away from tackling the issues threatening safety of their children.
In most schools, drainages are poor and open with kitchen and bathroom liquid waste draining into open spaces while food in some kitchens in handled poorly close to smelly sludge in the open drains.
In some schools, electricity installation in sensitive areas such as dormitories is poor, utility holes sometimes delicately covered while gates lack pedestrian exits creating potential for stampedes during escape in case of fire disasters.
Most schools in the county were found to have failed to organize transport for students to ensure their safety yet this was a Ministry directive.
Further, more than 66 per cent of schools failed to facilitate fire drills for entire school communities which is also a requirement.
The non-adherence to these key safety measures, the researchers deduced, implied that majority of schools did not possess the requisite knowledge and skills required to face disasters.
In addition, only slightly over half of the schools in the County had ramps through which students with physical challenges could access the school facilities.
It was established that 94.9 per cent schools had abandoned corporal punishment.
“There is need for schools to use alternative methods of enhancing student discipline,” the report said.
The study concluded that training of stakeholders on safety knowledge and skills correlated with compliance with safety standards in boarding schools hence influencing school compliance with the safety standards.
School heads were also advised to create awareness to parents on their role in implementation of safety in schools.
By Robert Nyagah
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