By Enock Okong’o
Parents from Kisii County have reiterated their call on the scraping of boarding schools as one of the measures to help curb recurring arsons.
Led by Kisii County Parents Association Mr. Paul Mainga, they said that boarding schools have become notorious on the burning of school properties. The concerned parents cited the recent burning of St. John’s Nyamagwa Boys High School dormitory that was reduced into ashes at night.
The dormitory was set ablaze by unknown people on Tuesday night as the students slept but none of them was injured although they lost property worth thousands of shillings.
Kisii County Education Board Chairman Prof. Henry Onderi who talked to Education News, condemned the arson saying that temporal closure of the school was the best remedy to avert further damages and asked the affected students and parents to be calm as investigations were ongoing.
“The police have already arrested 12 suspects in connections with the incident and are helping them with investigations,” he said.
Responding to the parents’ demand to scrap the boarding schools, Kisii County Director of Education Mr. Pius Ngoma said that it would not the best move.
He advised that this would interfere with students who are enrolled in different counties within the country saying that most of the parents in Kenya with school going children are young and work at different places in the country. He advised that boarding schools are the best options when the said parents get government transfers.
The director said that boarding schools are relevant at this time of Nation rebuilding because they enhance cohesion as learners blended and shared their diverse cultures.
Mr. Ngoma called for sobriety among the education stakeholders as they listened from education experts and bodies like Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.
