By Correspondent
Education stakeholders in Pokot Central Sub-county have resolved that Sigor Mixed Primary School be transformed into an integrated school to admit children with special needs.
They observed that the school would take care of children with disabilities in the area as all SNE schools are located in or around Kapenguria township in Pokot West.
The stakeholders reached the resolution when they held a stakeholders meeting to brainstorm on barriers that hamper access to quality education as well as retention and transition of learners from primary to secondary education at Wei Wei Secondary school in the area.
Area Deputy County Commissioner, Mr Were Simiyu expressed concern that the community encouraged and condoned child pregnancy, saying it affected girls’ access to education in the area.
He urged officials of local administration to arrest the perpetrators of the cultural practice to serve as a deterrent to others.
Subcounty Director of Education, Mr Kennedy Machacha said the introduction of Early Grade Reading, Tusome, had helped improve students’ performances in languages, saying the schools should build on the good foundation to improve in the general performance in other subjects.
He, however, said the area was not doing well in the context of national performance in both KCPE and KCSE results.
He said only 51 learners qualified for university education in the 2020 KCSE examinations as compared to 47 learners in 2019.
The meetings are convened under the auspices of Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQIP), which is a Sh20 billion World Bank funded project.
Youth and Gender Mainstreaming Officer in the Ministry of Education Mr Stephen Jalenga said the project aims at improving access, retention of learners in upper primary school and transition to secondary school in 30 counties and 110 Subcounties in Arid and Semi-Arid and marginalised areas in Kenya.
The ASAL and marginalised areas in the country has comparatively higher numbers of out of school children as well as those who, due to various factors, drop out of school in upper primary schools or fail to transit to secondary schools once they have done their KCPE examinations.
