My stand has been known and I have made it public. I’m not for boarding primary schools.
I think parents have the responsibility of ensuring the safety of their children.
The children should get love from their parents every day, not during the holidays only.
Pupils in primary school need mentorship, so much that if they are separated from their parents for three months, and then they are with their parents for two or three weeks, it is not fair for the upbringing of our young ones.
I have given my sentiments and feeling that there must be boarding schools, probably for those who are in nomadic areas, where the children need to be contained for the sake of learning.
But under normal circumstances, why should we have a Grade 4 child as a boarder? I think that is not the right thing.
And if we are proposing that we should have junior schools being day schools, why should we turn a blind eye to the area of primary schools?
Primary learners need closeness to their parents. But where the parents cannot be available like in ASAL areas, we can have selected exclusions. Or probably in the barracks where parents may not be available all the time.
But in normal circumstances, we should not allow our children in primary to be in boarding schools.
The Ministry of Education should up their game in ensuring that the right safety measures are put in place for our learners, whether in primary or secondary school.
That is the key responsibility of the ministry: to monitor and ensure the right thing is done. We should not be running up and down when there is a tragedy like the one that happened in Nyeri.
We should have a team doing inspection on the safety measures put in place in schools. We have been informed about what caused the fire in the school in Nyeri.
Why the tragedy had so many casualties, there must be reasons which we should be given.
Kenya Primary School Headteachers Association chairman spoke to the Star
