Primary And Junior Secondary School Decry Underfunding
By Isabella Maua
Primary school parents, especially those with children in early childhood education centers, have been called upon to hasten the process of birth certificate acquisition to ease NEMIS enrollment.
While addressing parents during the Annual General Meeting at Kapchebon Primary and Junior Secondary School in Kaptama, Mt. Elgon Sub County, the school’s head, Bethuel Burmen, advised that high enrolment in NEMIS will result in adequate funding for the school.
“In case any of you have a challenge applying for their children’s birth certificates, kindly liaise with me so that I can follow it up myself and ensure all the pupils in this school are on the National Education Management System,” reiterated Burmen.
He, on the other hand, challenged the parents to aid in financial support so that the pupils transitioning from pre-primary to primary school could have a school feeding program and afternoon learning sessions.
“These small children have been used to taking porridge while in pre-primary, and they get hungry and lose interest in learning once they join grade one because they have neither porridge nor food; we need to provide a meal for them too,” Burmen accentuated.
Despite the parents’ willingness to adapt the proposals and support their children throughout their primary and junior secondary school journeys, they decry poor roads and infrastructure within the area, hence jeopardizing the school’s performance.
“First, I’d like to acknowledge the impressive parent turnout today, but despite our efforts to converge for such productive meetings, lack of roads and bridges has been a great derailing factor in our school,” cited Godwin Saekwo, who is the Parents Association Chair.
Lidya Chebet, on the other hand, echoed his sentiments, highlighting a case where a pupil almost drowned at the River Kamukuywa while heading to school in the rainy season.
“We are so unfortunate since we are located at the boundary of Bungoma and Trans Nzoia Counties, and with our school being amidst Saboti, Machewa, and Kaptama wards, we beseech the respective MCAs to look into the roads and bridges lest we even lose our lives to floods and other road accidents,” bemoaned Chebet.
Conclusively, Burmen called upon the government to increase the fund allocation for co-curricula activities since the school only receives 10 shillings per JSS student and 17.70 shillings per primary school pupil.
“Despite the inadequate funding, we are also understaffed in the JSS section, with only two teachers currently employed at this school,” decried Burmen.
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