Kisole Primary School in Mwingi Central, Kitui, did not open for the new term on Monday after parents kept their children away to protest poor performance in last year's KCPE examination.
“As the community, we are disturbed by the deteriorating performance of our school in KCPE in recent times. There is mismanagement in the school and a lot of laxity among the teachers,” Festus Savali told journalists on behalf of the parents.
About 350 children enrolled at the school stayed away on the first day of the new term. Parents stormed the school early in the morning and barricaded the gate with thorny bushes.
The bushes placed at the gate and a new padlock used to secure the gate stopped teachers from accessing the school. The teachers, including head teacher Peter Mulandi, spent time idling outside the gate.
After about a two-hour wait, it took the intervention of the local Mwambui chief Lawrance Munyithya to have the thorny bushes removed and the padlock opened for the teachers to enter the school.
The chief reprimanded the parents and some for old boys at the primary school for failing to follow the right channel to have their grievances addressed. He said they should not have resorted to taking the law into their hands by illegally closing the school.
Munyithya directed parents to allow children to resume classes in the new term. He announced that a meeting between the parents, the school management and education authorities will be held on Wednesday to address the parents’ grievances.
But even as the parents agreed to the meeting, they vowed not to allow their children back to school until their grievances are adequately addressed.
“We will only take our children there on Wednesday and if the issues we raised are not adequately addressed at the meeting, we will continue keeping them at home to await a lasting solution,” said Wanza Muthui, a parent.
Head teacher Mulandi said teachers and the school management were not to blame for the poor performance in KCPE, saying most of the bright children had been pulled out of the school by parents and enrolled in private schools.
He condemned the parents for taking the law into their hands and closing down the school. He said wrangles over sponsorship of the school pitting the district education board and African Brotherhood Church were the genesis of the troubles at the school.
