Parents and leaders in Garissa county are alarmed about girls’ safety after day schools management suspended transport.
As a result, parents have to make private arrangements for transport, which are costly and can be dangerous to girls.
According to school heads who requested anonymity, suspension resulted from the Education ministry directive that day school parents should not pay any money. Day secondary education is supposed to be free.
Alarm increased on Tuesday after a tuk-tuk driver in Mombasa was caught trying to rape a girl whom he was to drop to school.
Livestock Marketing Council chair Dubat Ali Amey, speaking as a parent, told a press conference yesterday that families are forced to hire taxis, tuk-tuks and boda bodas to ferry children to and from school. This makes girls vulnerable to attack, he said.
Amey said a parent pays an average of Sh500 per day for private transport for day school children. This translates to about Sh45,000 per term.
He said that under the previous arrangement with school management, parents paid an average of Sh3,000 per term per child.
This amount catered for general transport, fuel, wear and tear of the school bus and the driver’s salary for the term.
Parent Marian Hussein said parents’ biggest concern is the safety of their schoolgirls. Sexual predators posing as tuk-tuk drivers or others exploit their children, she said. Hussein called the new arrangement dangerous and costly.
She said the attempted defilement in Mombasa should be a wake-up call to the Ministry of Education. It should leave some decisions on children’s welfare to local schools and parents, she said.
Garissa peace committee secretary Hassan Shurie called scrapping transport charges counterproductive.
“This directive will seriously affect the safety and discipline of the girl child, hence, the possibility of massive dropouts,” he said.
Turnout this term is low partly because the ministry has not provided alternative transport, Shurie said.
“We urge the ministry to reverse this directive and allow principals to charge transport,” he said.