The tragedy of the notorious Precious Talents primary school has opened a huge can of worms regarding our primary and secondary schools.
Some schools have the state of the art facilities including buildings. But other schools fail to the basic of what makes us call a place a school.
It is time to wake up and be kind to the Kenyan child studying in deplorable conditions. I think parents should show the way for others to follow here. I say Serikali saidia is not a song any parent should sing when their child studies in conditions that some farmers cannot house their cows!
Where has the love for the little ones gone? Kazi zi kuzaa tu bali kumlea mwana .
There are kids studying under trees and I wonder how the TSC posts teachers to schools without classrooms and toilets. How are they expected to work in such conditions?
I went to school shortly after independence. Our parents paid 65 shillings annually to the District Education Board. It was not easy to afford the fee and the kids from very humble homes paid 15 shillings and it was said they were given remission of fees. We got free textbooks and beautiful exercise books which had the map of Kenya showing major towns. Most of our classrooms had mud walls and tin roofs. We swept and watered the dusty earthen floors daily. Corrugated iron sheets and cemented floors were things we only imagined of.
Our parents built the classrooms for us. They provided poles, posts and communal labour to make the mud walls. They also plastered the mud walls with a mixture of cow-dung and wood ash.
We had decent toilets, adequate for both boys and girls. It bothered nobody stepping on the earthen floor of the toilets barefoot. Only teachers had shoes in those days.
Any reason why any kid in this republic should study under trees? Those trees should provide building materials. Mud, cow-dung and wood ash are readily available.
If no MCA provides roofing iron-sheets then there is thatching grass.
Serikali provides funds for simple desks and the teacher's table. Or what is done with the National Government Constituencies Development Fund Board (NGCDF)?
Toilets! This is an area where even the assumed civilized central Kenya counties fail the test. How can anyone say there is only one toilet for both boys and girls? And they wait for Serikali to build toilets for the kids they love so. It does not add up.
Parents can sacrifice a little luxury and build modern toilets for their kids.
Elsewhere there are schools without a single toilet. Teachers visit toilets in the neighbourhood as the pupils go to nearby bushes. This was acceptable before the coming of the Christian missionaries. Not today.
I think we should all be kind to the little ones and provide them with decent schools. This is the only way to show we want them to be there to take up places as men and women of this republic.
Shosh.