- “A child refuses to go to school because they have not eaten for 2-3 days, even an adult cannot work,” Chege said.
- “It is your responsibility as a parent to feed and clothe that child. You can’t leave all that to the government,” the PS said.
Image: COURTESY
Poverty remains the biggest hindrance to the successful implementation of the 100 per cent education transition policy, the government has said.
Curriculum Reforms and Implementation PS Fatma Chege said learners still drop out of school because of hunger.
The PS spoke last week when she visited GOA High School in Nyandarua county.
Under the 100 per cent transition policy, the government seeks to ensure all students progress from primary to secondary schools and colleges.
However, four years later the policy is still facing the challenge of full-term completion.
This is because not all students who are enrolled in secondary school complete their studies. Chege said most learners are not able to receive the other basic needs.
“The Ministry of Education might not be able to deal with family poverty but we try and help where we can,” she said.
Despite being taken to school, some of them lack shelter and come from poverty-stricken backgrounds.
“A child refuses to go to school because they have not eaten for 2-3 days, even an adult cannot work,” Chege said.
Tumaini children's home housed at GOA High School has 95 vulnerable learners and orphans.
Another almost 100 learners are spread within the country, bringing the total to 200.
With the help of directors of education, Chege said the ministry has been able to give food to affected learners.
“We registered some learners and the head teacher told them to go to his office if they haven’t eaten,” she said.
The PS further narrated an instance where three high school girls were compelled by their guardians to take home Sh600 daily.
The three students, Chege said had uniforms, books and school fees paid but did not have a home to go to, without the money.
“A certain social worker offered to give the girls the money, they took it and went back home,” she said.
The ministry while conducting a mop-up strives to enroll learners in the nearest public schools.
This ensures that learners can travel to school daily without transport challenges.
“We register them and tell them to be walking to school together and you can see them in groups every morning and evening,” Chege said.
The PS however said most students who drop out of school have issues in their homes.
“The reason most of them are not in school, are issues that Jogoo House is not able to deal with,” she said.
Despite the government offering Free Day Secondary education, parents are also expected to cater for some needs.
In the programme, the government caters for teachers and tuition with provision of text books for each learner.
Image: COURTESY
“It is your responsibility as a parent to feed and clothe that child. You can’t leave all that to the government,” Chege said.
For learners in boarding schools, parents are expected to pay for food and other boarding materials.
The capitation grant provides recurrent funding to all public primary and secondary schools in the country.
Currently, the grant is Sh1,420 per learner for primary schools and Sh22,244 per learner for secondary schools.
There is also a top-up of Sh2,300 and Sh35,000 for learners with special needs and disabilities in primary and secondary schools, respectively.
The government started the 100 per cent transition policy in 2018 in a joint effort by the ministries of Education and Interior and has sustained it to date, albeit with hitches.
In the inaugural year, the government achieved 83.3 per cent transition while in 2019, it achieved slightly above 97 per cent transition.
In the first quarter of 2020, Murang’a county had the highest transition rate at 135.2 per cent, suggesting that students were migrating from other counties to join secondary schools there.
Nairobi county had the lowest rate last year of 47 per cent.
A year after its implementation, principals decried a rise in indiscipline cases in secondary schools.
Some students do not merit admission and the policy has led to a rise of indiscipline cases in schools, they said.
The school heads said students who want to pursue vocational training in technical colleges should be allowed to do so.
They said students who cannot read and write are enrolling in Form 1 and are unable to grasp secondary school concepts.
Some 1,214,031 candidates sat the 2021 KCPE and out of this, 11,857 scored between 400 and 500 marks.
Another 315,275 scored between 300 and 399 marks, while 578,197 scored between 200 and 299 marks.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)