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Where not only education, but also teaching, is free

Two of Kathama Primary School teachers Wilson Tsuma, Sarah Koi, and some of their pupils.  [PHOTOS: JECKONIA OTIENO/STANDARD]

By Jeckonia Otieno

KILIFI; KENYA: Every morning Chengo Kazungu and his kin Hamisi and Mapenzi Kazungu have to walk 6km through the wild to the nearest school, Kathama Pre-Primary. They traverse a jungle with lots of perils to seek education that they believe has the potential to unlock their future.

Kathama in Tsavo, Kilifi County, is the nearest school for them as the other two – Chakama and Mkondoni – are more than 10km away on either side of the road connecting Tsavo and Malindi from Kathama.

Kathama school serves about 106 pre-primary school children from the village and its environs. Most pupils in this school come from far, among them the Kazungu trio.

The challenges

School attendance is marred with different difficulties that define the area. Apart from the long distances learners have to contend with, they have to make with studies on empty stomachs except when a well-wisher donates food for them. This has, at times, posed a challenge.

Wilson Tsuma, who teaches Level Two of pre-primary in the school, says endemic poverty forces parents to sometimes ask their children to carry some food home for their other siblings and parents.

“Often parents advise us to urge their children not eat all the food in school but carry some home to share with others,” says Tsuma.

Kathama School started in 2004 to help area children avoid astronomical distances to Chakama and Mkondoni. It operated in a dilapidated mud-walled building until 2011 when a Kilifi investor built them classes.

Naja Dahmani, who runs Duma Crusher, a mining company in the county, says the need for education in the area hit her conscience hence her move to construct a better school for the area.

The school, which has three classrooms and more under construction, stands out majestic in the area. Sadly though, it suffers serious shortage of teachers and its only three tutors are volunteers “with rare love for children”.

Tsuma and Sarah Koi’s zeal to educate the young poor children, has forced them to juggle between working to fend for their families and feeding the young souls with much-needed education.

They say an earlier agreement between them and parents that each child should pay Sh100 per month came a cropper as parents’ defaulted citing rampant poverty. Again, most parents do not seem keen to send children to school. They would rather have them helping in farms, the teachers said.

Highest education

Tsuma says, “Some parents even wonder why they should pay fees when the Government is providing free education for all.”

Koi says it is common in the area for girls to be forced out of school and married off, some as young as only nine. “We have to go round the village requesting parents to let their children go to school.”

Sadly, the two teachers are among the only six people who have reached Form Four in Kathama village and have not received any further education despite the enormous work they are doing for the local community.

The teachers say education officials make occasional visits but only encourage them to join early childhood development colleges, the nearest of which is in Malindi, and which the two cannot afford.