By Amoto Dennis
The North Eastern region ,once a vast desert of dust and shrubbery, is now teeming with young people milling around colleges for education.
The number of primary school teachers pursuing either degrees or diploma courses is impressive.
A survey by Education News revealed that more enroll for Diploma in Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE), Guiding and Counseling and other bridging courses as a stepping stone to degree programmes.
Director of ECDE at the County Government Bishar Mohamed estimates that 98 per cent of primary school tutors in North Eastern are gunning for or have diplomas or degrees.
Ironically, as much as primary school tutors pursue degrees, not many want to remain in the teaching profession.
“Naturally, most of us are hell bent on moving to greener pastures, as the noble profession is a back-breaking job and pays peanuts,’’ said 28 year old Abdirzak Abdille who left teaching to join the lucrative NGO world in Garissa.
This may explain why the transition rate from primary to secondary and secondary to university remains low.
Painting a grimmer picture is the disputed Annual Learning Assessment Report, which stated that nine out of ten standard three pupils cannot handle grade two work in literacy and numeracy.
The report is dimmer in Mathematics where it says a paltry 6.7 per cent can do division work.
