Pupils in PCEA Wandumbi Special School lack warm cloths to keep them in cold weather

Pupils during a vocational class session. [PHOTOS: SAMMY MOSE/STANDARD]

By LYDIAH NYAWIRA

Nyeri, Kenya: Every year in July, something peculiar happens at a school for the mentally incapacitated children in Tetu constituency, Nyeri County. The school sends the pupils home because of cold weather.

While their counterparts in the rest of the country brave the second term cold weather, PCEA Wandumbi Special School sends its 121 pupils home because they have no dry clothes to keep them warm.

Deputy principal Michael Mwangi says the school cannot risk keeping the mentally challenged children in school because they do not have a drier to help in drying the loads of laundry they wash every day.

“Every day we wash the students’  beddings and uniforms because most of them soil themselves. When it is cold the clothes do not dry,” Mwangi explains.

“Our school is located near the Aberdare Ranges and the weather here gets extremely cold. We do not want children to fall sick so we send them home early though it affects their education and morale,” Mwangi says.

Emotionally attached

The school, which started in 1987, takes in children from all over the country with various mental challenges and of different ages.

“We have three categories; mild, moderate and severely mentally challenged children and we cater for them with basic curriculum which involves identifying their talents and teaching them vocational skills,” Mwangi explains.

He notes that it takes some children 10 to 20 years to reach the milestones like ordinary children both emotionally and intellectually.

“We need to utilise the time they spend in school but with a whole school term cut short every year, it increases the time they spend in school,” Mwangi adds.

A teacher in the school, Ms Winfred Gakara, says while most parents are supportive and able to pay school fees for their children, a portion fail to pay required fees making it hard to run the school.

“We need a laundry drier to keep the children in school, it is very disruptive to send them home when most of them are comfortable here and need their time in school just like other children in the country,” she notes.

She explains that the school faces other challenges in maintaining the pupils in the school.

“We cater for some autistic children who need specific diets to control their condition among other needs,” she says.

She notes that most children get emotionally attached to the teachers and it is difficult for them to understand why they are being sent home mid way into the term.

She says the laundry drier would cost over Sh1.5 million and the school has no tangible financial support. Wamagana ward representative Jesse Mwangi laments that local politicians have ignored the needs of the school.

He notes that in the current political structure, the county leaders should help the school acquire the equipment to keep the children in school.