By Michael Oduor
Rebecca Mmbone and Stephen Mainde, officials for UWEZO program under Usawa Agenda. Photo Michael Oduor
Parents across the country have been urged to support their children’s education to ensure quality is maintained.
Addressing the press in Voi, Uwezo official, Madam Rebecca Mmbone highlighting Usawa agenda, said currently there is an assessment across the country to ascertain the status of children’s education in the country and at county level.
“The Uwezo programme is a citizen-led initiative which started in 2009 trying to seek the answer to the question, ‘are our children learning?’ and checking on the state of learning resources and infrastructure in schools across the country,” she said.
They are currently training volunteers from the villages across Taita Taveta County who will then be used to collect data on children education from schools and through engaging children and parents from home.
The programme aims at knowing what is happening to the children’s education in school, the state of schools in terms of infrastructure and resources, and ensuring that parents get involved in their children’s education.
According to Stephen Mainde, an official from Uwezo, the programme also aims to look at the equity of the children in schools. He said that there are challenges in schools from different parts of the country, adding that stating that they are looking forward to equal distribution of resources to all the schools in the country.
According to Mainde in some schools and some rural areas, children are learning under trees and are expected to do the same exam as those in Urban areas with all the resources.
“This is not fair, hence our initiative of trying to look into such issues for the relevant ministries to look into,” he added.
“For example you find that in some schools or other areas you find children are learning under the tree and then you want to subject them to one exam, it may not be fair and that may not bring success in the education sector. That is why we are doing this assessment so that we do an insightful proposal for the ministry to take action on,” he stated.
He added that the programme involves the Ministry of Education stating that the co-operation between them has brought about positive changes in children’s education in the country.
Mainde reiterated that parental involvement in their children’s education in Taita Taveta region has been low which is related to the unsatisfying education results in the national examination. He urged parents to take part and follow their children’s education and results for better performance.
“The quality officer for education in this county, said that the parental involvement in their children’s education in this county is very low and that is why the performance is also very low,” he said.
“Learning is a progressive thing. Parents should sit down with the teachers and get involved in their children’s education. They should not leave all the responsibilities to the teachers which makes them overwhelmed and which may translate to poor performance,” noted Mmbone..
