By Amoto Ndiewo
At the end of a two-day visit to volatile Garissa County, ODM leader Raila Odinga made a myriad of promises concerning the educational woes experienced in the region.
The ODM presidential aspirant promised to build at least one boarding school in each sub county in the county.
Unknown to the ODM supremo, boarding schools exist in the area yet they are in shambles and have very low enrolment. They were started by the national government to entice the nomadic children from running away with their parents looking for pasture and water.
Farah Gure, a former headmaster of Sankur Nomadic Boarding School, said that the diet offered and restrictions imposed reduce the interest for schooling in the boarding schools.
He further pointed out that boarding schools aren’t suitable for nomadic pastoralist children.
According to Gure, boarding schools in the area are semi day schools and the day schools have lots of truancy due to the happy go lucky attitude embraced by the children.
The School Feeding Programme (SFP) in schools has been there since time immemorial yet it hasn’t boosted enrolment in schools.
A spot check by Education News reveals that SFP consists of maize, beans and kamadi. The meal offered contrasts so much to pastoralists’ rich diet of milk, meat and highly sugared tea.
A little bird told me that in some areas, students seen eating SFP are regarded lowly.
Some tutors note that before the introduction of NEMIS, some unscrupulous school heads used to own two enrolment registers, one for the SFP and the other one had more enrolment.
The ODM Supremo also proposed special entry points for colleges and universities so that the region could enrol and grow more of its own tutors.
Unknown to the former premier Raila Odinga, the teaching profession isn’t the favourite cup of tea for North Easterners. Year in year out, tens of teachers enrol in colleges for training to be teachers, graduate but less than half of them work till the retirement age.
The EN Survey establishes that most residents of North Eastern region regard teaching as a poor man’s job. That being the case ,those who have enrolled as teachers either drop out of the noble profession to do business, opt for better jobs or travel abroad as economic migrants .
