The Tana River County Government has allocated funds for the construction and renovation of many classrooms in the Riverine County.
This, according to County Education Executive Member Hon Abass Kunyo, “will go a long way in improving the education and learning environment in the county, which remains a sad victim of harsh climate change weather vagaries.”
Disturbed by this, he clarified that the construction is specifically geared towards building five new classrooms and renovating seven classrooms in Mapimo Comprehensive School. “This,” he says, “will go a long way in benefiting 1002 students.”
According to Hon Kunyo, the Competence-Based Education infrastructure program is also geared to construct eight classrooms in eight secondary schools in the Riverine County, with each classroom estimated to cost Sh788,000.
The funds are intended to address the severe shortage of proper infrastructure in the county. Moreover, amid concerns about shipment challenges caused by drought and floods, County Governor Dhadho Godana expressed the dire need for additional funds for the suffering education sector.
“The climate change monster cannot,” cannot lead our education system to a smooth run,” he said.
And pigtailing on perennial droughts and floods running equal turns in destruction, residents of Mororo slums in Sala ward, Tana River County, are up in arms against the relocation of Hatata Comprehensive School to Bulla Baraka in Madogo.
“The new site for the school is two kilometres away from our residence in Mororo, and to expect our kids to walk all the way to school day in day out is a tall order,” lamented Mohammed Lokha, a prominent opinion leader in the stake.
However, according to Augustine Ruto, since Hatata was relocated due to perennial flooding, many schoolchildren have dropped out because of the distance.
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”Most have resorted to early marriage or child labour to make ends meet,” said Ruto, adding,” even in our last years, floods are now becoming a routine feature. When the school was marooned, Hatata students were relocated to Madogo, which is 4 kilometres from our flood- and drought-prone semi-informal residential area.
“It seems we are living behind God’s,” lamented Lokha, who has called on the government to relocate Hatata to Mororo or else face the risk of students dropping out of school in droves.
In addition, Lokha says that since Mororo is a semi-informal settlement, most residents are economically destitute or struggling to make a living on a shoestring budget; thus, affording motorised transport to Madogo or Bulla Baraka is a tall order.
“I have to weigh between paying for transport and buying a meal. In Hatata, I was sure my kids would walk to school, have a school feeding program and come back to sleep,” lamented Jjibril Kusow.
He says the number of students at Hatata Comprehensive School was over 1,000, and now those attending from Mororo environs are a mere handful.
“In the era of compulsory free primary and secondary education, it would be a crime to deny a kid education due to an arbitrary human error of judgment ending in closing a school.”
In this respect, he is calling for the fast-tracking of the reinstatement of Hatata school in Mororo before land grabbers get in their act.
Accordingly, the Tana County Education Member Executive, Hon Abass Kunyo, says he is working around the clock to improve low literacy levels and phase out untrained ECDE tutors.
“We have to train them and employ more qualified personnel. Besides ECDE workforce challenges, adult education too is dragging.”
Kunyo tells Education News that, with an enrollment of 21,136 students,21,136 students, the county government needs to employ an additional 200 ECDE teachers after employing 384 teachers.
“However, our main hurdle remains funds,” cried the county education chief.
“With an illiteracy rate rolling at 67 percent and poverty rate grazing at more than 56 percent, the 101 adult literacy Centres have only 101 tutors, that means a teacher per centre, yet they have an enrollment of 2,622 students.
Moreover, the county needs Sh55 million to fund education programs in the TVET sector and some Sh45 million to feed the school feeding program.
He confides to EN that boosting enrollment is the key to his tenure and legacy. He beams with a distant reflection. Later, EN learns adult literacy, and TVET and ECDE enrollment have increased by 50 percent during his tenure in Tana County’s education sector.
“Let us try,” he relapses into reflection once again, looking ahead.
By Ochieng Ndiewo
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