A week after eight innocent lives were lost after the structure they called their classroom at Precious Talents Top School in Nairobi collapsed, the Nation shines the spotlight on other waiting disasters in the country.
Several primary schools are in urgent need of an infrastructural upgrade to avert danger posed by unsafe dilapidated buildings which are deathtraps.
The government has ordered an audit of the suitability of facilities in schools following last week’s tragedy.
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang on Thursday issued a circular directing regional and county directors of education to evaluate the facilities in all schools as well as their legal statuses as he admitted that there are schools that “do not meet minimum safety standards”.
In the Rift valley, all schools will be inspected from this week to identify unworthy buildings used as classrooms.
“We are formulating a team this week that will comprise officers from public works, the education department and those from my office to go around all the schools in the region and prepare a report,” Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya said during an interview.
STRAINED RESOURCES
He admitted that the government had for long not carried out an inspection of structures in its public institutions.
The team will be expected to look into the status of the buildings used as classrooms, as well as sanitation and security.
Mr Natembeya said that when the government introduced free primary education, many structures were put up in various schools to mitigate the over-enrolment.
The rush for free education, he added, led to some school management committees authorising construction of buildings that were shoddily built.
“Buildings that will be found to be in poor state and unworthy for public use will be condemned. We shall also see how National Government Constituency Development Funds (NG-CDF) will come in to help us in construction of new buildings,” said Mr Natembeya.
The Nation early this year highlighted schools in the Coast region with weak structures used as classrooms while in others, pupils learn under trees.
At the time, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha called for action in addressing infrastructural challenges in public schools after a photo of children learning in a flooded classroom at Mangororo Primary School in Kauma, Kilifi County went viral.
Last week he inspected schools in the region and ordered the closure of Greenfields Academy in Mombasa.
SHODDY JOB
The school, which has a population of 250 pupils, has one permanent building that was constructed through NG-CDF funding in 2015.
One of the classrooms serves both Standard 6 and 7, with the pupils facing opposite directions. There no desks, and learners sit on building blocks during lessons.
“We had borrowed desks from a neighbouring school but they have asked us to return them,” the school’s board of management chairman, Mr Justus Mwagona, said.
Parents at Kaimbaga Primary School in Ol Kalou Constituency, Nyandarua County, fear for the lives of their children in Grade 1, 2 and 3 after their classroom block developed cracks, three years after construction.
The NG-CDF funded the construction to the tune of Sh2 million in 2016.
Parents association chairman Peter Ng’ethe blamed the contractor whom he accused of doing shoddy work.
However, Ol Kalou NG–CDF chair, Mr Nduati Kariuki, denied claims that the office awarded the contract irregularly.
Many primary schools in the Mt Kenya region are operating in contravention of the Safety Standards Manual for Schools in Kenya and the Basic Education Act. Classrooms and toilets are run-down while learners use broken desks.
SAFETY CONCERNS
In Meru County, among the affected public schools include Ntukai, Antuarimata, Kimirei, Kalimba, Kirukire, Mwithu and Mbaarua.
At Antuarimata Primary School in Tigania East, the classrooms for Pre-primary, Grade 1 and 2 are old iron sheet structures with gaping holes on every side.
At Kalimba Primary School in Tigania West, Grade 1 and 2 pupils learn in old ant-infested structures.
Mbaarua Primary School in Tigania East was closed by public health officials last term for being “too dangerous to be occupied”.
According to a report seen by the Nation, the school, which is built on a hilly area, is full of gullies and buildings with gaping cracks.
“The school has no workable ground. All permanent buildings have cracks which means they are not stable. The classrooms are not suitable for human habitation. The school should be closed immediately and relocated to another suitable site,” the report by the sub-county public health officer, Ms Josphine Kathoni, says.
In Isiolo County, Standard 5 pupils at Gado Primary School in Merti study in a classroom with cracked walls that could collapse and cause injuries to the learners.
Teachers at the school are perturbed but the school leadership downplayed the matter. The administration block that hosts the offices is also in a poor state.
BLAME GAME
Isiolo County Director of Education Koriyow Ali said he had received a report about the school and would visit it and others to establish status of their infrastructure.
In Kirinyaga County, Kandawa Primary School in South Ngariama is by all standards dangerous for learners and an eyesore to residents.
Started in 2012, the school has mud-walled classrooms, which are in need of maintenance. The classrooms are crowded with four or five pupils sharing a desk.
“The buildings have cracks where scorpions and snakes hide and children can easily be attacked,” a teacher said.
Mwea East Sub-County Director of Education Raphael Musyoki admitted that the school is in bad shape but was quick to add that the government is not to blame.
He explained that the responsibility of constructing classrooms rests with parents and the NG-CDF committee, whose patron is MP Kabinga Wathayu.
At Kiambogo Primary School in Kieni, Nyeri County, wooden classrooms that were put up 27 years ago are still in use.
The school has more than 450 pupils with only three permanent classrooms put up by the national government in 2008. However, one is incomplete.
RESPONSIBILITY
According to county quality assurance and standards officer James Gathogo, school heads are encouraged to report cases of dilapidation to the Ministry of Education to ensure that repairs are done on time.
Derelict and makeshift structures constructed from mud walls serve as classrooms for learners in rural parts of Nyanza and Western.
Mukangu Primary School in Lugari Sub-County, Kakamega County, was started 10 years ago and has a population of 426 pupils.
However, there are only two permanent structures at the school. They serve as an ECDE classroom, administration block and a classroom for Standard 8.
Emmaus Blessed Primary School in Obunga, Kisumu County, a centre for Alternative Provision of Basic Education and Training (APBET) puts the lives of hundreds of children in danger.
The school shelters pupils from pre-primary to primary school in a one-storey building built of wood and iron sheets.
Most of the pupils that attend the school are orphans and children from poor families.
In Kilgoris constituency, teachers and parents of Ntuka Primary School in Keyian Ward live in fear after a storm damaged classrooms last month.
EASE CONGESTION
The institution has 358 pupils with 41 set to sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations this year.
At God Jope Primary School in Suba North, 108 pupils learn under trees after three condemned classrooms were demolished in July this year.
The demolition followed an incident in which a pupil was injured in a stampede as pupils ran out of a classroom that was collapsing.
At Nabutswi Primary School in Budalangi Constituency, most classrooms are mud-walled.
At Kenya Gauze in Bunyala North Ward, the classrooms are mud-walled but the NG-CDF is constructing two spacious classrooms to ease congestion.
At Busagwa Primary School in Bunyala Central Ward, the classrooms have been condemned for being too old.