By Kese Werugha
Education stakeholders in Kilifi County have raised concern over the mass failure of students in the region in national exams.
Speaking in Kilifi town during public dialogue, the leaders blamed the outdated and retrogressive culture among Mijikenda communities as major hindrance in achieving high standards of education.
Kilifi North legislator Owen Baya noted that the law prohibiting child marriage in has not been fully implemented in the county.
He said statistics indicated that more than 1,300 girls dropped out of school during 2014-2017 period.
He called upon parents and guardians to shun retrogressive culture that does not promote education of the girl-child.
Governor Amason Kingi pointed out that since independence, education standards at the coastal region had been deteriorating due to poor school infrastructure and lack of adequate teaching personnel.
“In some instances you can find a school of over 1300 pupils with only eight teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission while the rest are under the Board of Management,” said Kingi.
Raising a red flag over the ration of teachers to pupils in majority of the local schools, he said that was posing a big drawback to realizing better education results in the county.
The participants at the forum held at Pwani University were informed that last year over 30 schools in the county were listed as schools of miseries.
The County Executive Committee member in charge of education Prof Gabriel Katana challenged stakeholders to consider introducing talks on careers orientation to the students as part of motivating them.
Prof Katana also said poor preparation among the students, absenteeism and poor terrain are some of the factors to blame for poor performance in the national examinations.
