Schools in Tana River record low Form One enrolment

A boy walks with his guardian in Meru Town as he is escorted to school to join Form One on January 11, 2018. Schools in Tana River County are recording low enrolment of Form One students. PHOTO | PHOEBE OKALL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Director of Education Gitonga Mbaka said the number of the students enrolled so far is worrying.

  • Majority of Form One classes in many schools do not have sufficient students to form a quorum.

  • Mau Mau Memorial Girls, an extra county school has so far enrolled two students.

Schools in Tana River are recording low enrolment of Form One students.

Speaking to journalists, Director of Education Gitonga Mbaka said the number of the students enrolled so far is worrying.

“The numbers of enrolled Form One students in our county is very worrying and embarrassing. We thought we were going to have an increase as time goes by but it is not growing,” he said”.

Mr Mbaka said so far, only 22 percent of the expected number had enrolled and he feared that that would just be the end of the entire exercise as the numbers were not improving as hoped.

NO QUORUM

Out of the 4,197 Form One students expected to join schools in the county, only 931 have enrolled so far, which means majority of Form One classes in many schools do not have sufficient students to form a quorum.

Mr Mbaka said it is difficult to understand the reasons why the parents have not enrolled their children in schools, especially day schools in the county.

“I don’t know what to attribute the failure of parents enrolling their students even in the day schools we are having in the county to. I may understand that in extra county schools fees may be the issue but in this case, even day schools are worst hit,” he said.

Hola Boys Secondary School, a national school in the county hoped to enrol 192 Form One students but has so far enrolled 25, which is only 13 percent of the expected number.

TWO STUDENTS

The situation is even worse at Mau Mau Memorial Girls, an extra county school that has so far enrolled two students, with 20 others having sought admission to the school but with very low marks, making it only an 11 percent enrolment.

The school’s Deputy Principal Azenath Mairura said they had togo below the 300 cut-off marks set for students wishing to join the school, forcing them to admit students with as low as 200 marks so that they could get a quorum to resume teaching.

However, Ms Mairura said most of the parents had cited school fees difficulties, which she said was not an issue as they have admitted other students after paying half of the school fees on admission.

Schools in the county are reeling in debts as many parents have been unable to pay school fees.

Many students have been forced to stay at home for lack of school fees.

The county director of education has called upon Governor Dhadho Godhana to speed up his promise to pay school fees for Form 3 and 4 students, saying that most of the schools had hoped to get the money by the beginning of the new term as he promised.