I sometimes share stories like the following on some situations of education in Kenya in order to give a picture of how appreciated and fulfilling the efforts of all Friends of Fr. Symon Jubilee School for Nomads are. Thank you all for supporting the school project for Maasai people.
I read from educational news that an outstanding leader in Kenya was moved to tears by the plight of school-going children in a place called Kitui County during his familiarization tour of the region. He could not hold back tears at a Primary School where he discovered hundreds of pupils studying under ramshackle structures made of sticks that often exposed them to the harsh weather. He further learned that some pupils trekked more than 14 kilometers (8.6 Miles) to and from the “school,” with only two teachers employed by the Teachers’ Service Commission (government) to man the institution’s five classes.
He said “I must admit I feel sorry for the children and the local community for their state of living. It is not about me but these suffering little ones after 50 years of independence in Kenya. It is sad because this area has had elected leaders,” he said as he wiped away tears.
The school’s head teacher told the chairman his pupils come to school with empty stomachs to attend the lessons in the open. He said the school lacked ostensibly everything to be called a public institution. He said he carries home a few important items from his office daily for safe keeping at his house.
Another separate report on education in Kenya states that Kenyan children are being cheated out of an education because teachers in public schools stay away from class for more than half of the school day. This is the shocking claim made in a new World Bank survey whose findings were released just days before the end of the 23-day strike by public school teachers demanding more money.
The report concludes that what schools need most is better human resource management.
According to a survey of Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) for Kenya, children in public primary schools are taught for only two hours 40 minutes a day, not even half the official teaching day of five hours 40 minutes. This is because some teachers either do not go to work at all or spend most of the day in the school compound doing other things. “While teachers at public and private schools were likely to show up for work, public school teachers were 50 per cent less likely to be in class teaching,” the report says. “Children in public schools receive an average of 20 days less teaching during a term than those in private schools. Even when teachers go into the classroom,” the survey found, “only about one third of them give students value for money.”
QUALITY OF LESSONS
Among public teachers, only 35 per cent showed mastery of the subjects they taught.
“Seniority and years of training did not correlate with higher levels of knowledge.”
This low level of service delivery is expected to have a major effect on the achievement of the country’s development objectives. Other surveys show that most pupils do not learn to read or do basic math at the right age.
There are 10 million children of primary school age in Kenya that has a population of about 40 million people. This number is set to rise as thousands more babies are surviving past infancy. This growing population could greatly expand the country’s prosperity. But this is not likely to happen without improvements in the quality of education.
This trimester students in Fr. Symon Jubilee School went on well with their school work and other activities unlike children in public schools who missed about a month of learning due to the teachers’ strike. The government has extended the trimester by one week and will extend the next trimester that will start September 2 by one more week in hopes that the teachers will cover the work required for children to take public examinations at the end of the year.
As I write this I have been informed that the students have done their end of term examinations with the teachers and that they will be leaving for their break of about three weeks on August 9th.
Generally it is said that the rains were not good this year and that there is extensive crop failure which makes basic items for stable food expensive.
Fr. Symon