Different education stakeholders from Nyeri County have joined efforts to develop intervention strategies to improve student academic performance in public primary and secondary schools in Tetu constituency.
In the past, Tetu was known to have a reputable education system that produced top students in the country at both primary and secondary levels but has now become an academic dwarf, a factor attributed to a shortage of teachers and poor learning infrastructure.
The area MP Geoffrey Wandeto said that there is a need to find a solution to the ailing educational sector in the constituency.
“We had a successful meeting with the head teachers, principals, alumni, boards of management, national and county education stakeholders and parents to address issues that can lead to improvement of the education status in Tetu,” he said.
He added that his constituency has a shortage of over 122 skilled teachers which has largely contributed to the menace.
“In Tetu, we have a total of 27 public primary schools and 16 private schools, we have seen parents transferring their children to private schools due to poor infrastructure in our public and lack of teachers in public schools,” he said.
Wandeto added through the NG-CDF they shall introduce a successful feeding programme and introduce a subsidized education programme to attain high enrollments in schools within the region.
“We started our benchmarking journey in Dagoreti South constituency, we have learnt that, to have a high enrollment we need to introduce new policies that will help in enrolling and retention of students in our schools, we have noticed parents transferring their children to private schools and hence there is need to upgrade our public schools,” he said.
TSC Regional Director, Elijah Omwega said there has been an acute shortage of teachers in the constituency, but plans are underway to employ over 70 teachers in both primary and secondary schools.
“A shortage of teachers harms students and the public education system as a whole, we must provide extra support by employing more teachers in our schools to improve the education level in this constituency,” he said.
He added teachers must be involved in capacity-building activities that will help them get new skills and knowledge that will make their work easier.
“We must improve the working conditions and other factors that are promoting teachers to quit the profession, this as a result has led to poor performance in our schools,” he said.
Central Regional Education director, Sabina Aroni said the county had a successful 99.8 per cent transition to secondary school last year with 12 per cent making it to various universities.
“There has been significant progress in terms of transition to secondary schools, but the major challenge is the retention of the students in school,” she said.
By Macharia Kiarie
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