By Rhoda Mutuku
As Coast region continues to grapple with low enrollment of form ones, stakeholders in the education sector are now seeking answers to the problem which has hit hard many learning institutions throughout the county.
Religious and cultural beliefs have been mentioned as some of the key setbacks said to be hindering uptake of form one slots by most students from Coast.
“Most parents avoid sending their children to the National and extra-provincial schools claiming that activities in such schools are against their religious and cultural ethics,” explains Mombasa Deputy governor Professor William Kingi “Most national schools and extra-provincials schools offer CRE instead of IRE, the dressing code of some of those school do not match with Islamic standards.”
The former university don argues most parents are hesitant to send their children to schools in up country fearing that that once away they will automatically be detached from Madrassa thereby suffer religious education starvation.
“Parents in coast take religion very seriously, you will realize that parents will always want to monitor their children to ensure that they don’t lose track on madrassa education,” explains Kingi.
By the same token Kwale women representative, Zuleikha Hassan reckons that some schools especially those in upcountry tend to overstep their bounds on matters pertaining students’ freedom of worship.
She referred to a case of a school in Siaya where a student was reportedly turned away from school for putting on a hijab.
“These are the things we have spent a lot of time on in court battles,” said Hassan who charged further that government had failed to provide free education as per the basic education act.
She noted that basic education act translates to free education from Nursery school, Primary school and secondary school and that parents should not be asked to pay a single coin.
“Parents thought education was going to be free only to report to school and be sent away due to lack of school fees…Jubilee government promised to give free education but now they are changing the tunes to free tuition, minus lunch,” she said.
The region’s education sector was brought into sharp focus after acting education cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i sounded an alarm over slow uptake of form one slots in the region an observation that prompted the launch of operation peleka mtoto shuleni (take a child to school) in Mombasa.
The operation, the CS said will involve administrative officials among them county commissioners, chiefs and other education stakeholders from both County and national government who will move from village to village in search for students who are yet to report to school.
“We will visit every county village after village and find out the reason why they are not in school. We will check the school records to establish who qualified to go which school and where they are,” said the CS.
Dr Matiang’i categorically flagged out Kwale County where only 754 students had reported by December 12, against 5,568 slots that were available.
However different stakeholders have shared their views about the whole issue with lack of school fees and poverty levels in the region being cited as major reasons.
In some instances, school heads have been accused of withholding admission letters and demanding bribes as part of admitting students.
Perturbed by the poor enrolment and late reporting by some students, Matiang’i jetted to Mombasa on Wednesday for a special stakeholders meeting over the alarming poor enrollment in spite the government initiative to lower the cost of education.
“We have provided free textbooks for students to learn but I have been to schools where the textbooks are there but the students are yet to report,” quizzed Matiang’i.
The CS encountered the stark woes that ail education at the Coast as he listened to presentations from stakeholders.
Local members of parliament were concerned that delays in release of constituency development fund CDF was a blow to parents, majority of who rely on CDF kitty for bursaries to cater for school fees for their children.
“During this first month of the year, when families are normally faced with difficult financial times, normally you will find that CDF comes to their rescue,” said Kisauni MP Ali Mbogo whose sentiments were reiterated by his Kaloleni counterpart Paul Katana.
Taita Taveta governor Granton Samboja however said there was need for attitude change among the Coastal people in the approach to education matters.
“In this region it is easier for people to fundraise for wedding parties than to contribute for success of academic affairs this is wrong and we need to change and take our children to school,” Samboja said.
Coast regional education coordinator Abdikadir Kike declined to comment on the issue saying the CSs’ remarks on the issue were final.
