One of the main reasons we take our little ones to school is so that they learn how to read and write. It is, therefore, unfortunate that, according to a recent report, there are children in upper primary school in Kenya who cannot read. While many sit in their houses, IRENE MAINA is on a mission to reverse this trend. She spoke to GARDY CHACHA.
In 2008, Irene Rufaro Maina had an encounter with a Class Eight pupil (let us call her Alice) that impacted her vision. Alice — despite being a KCPE candidate — was unable to pull off a four-lettered word as simple as ‘love’.
Through motherly instinct and a teacher’s wisdom, Irene could deduce that Alice, and many other primary school pupils, were lagging behind in their reading skills, something that would require a sponsored study and months of research for the Government to realise five years later.
Irene is a woman on course to achieve greatness — not for herself but for pupils at Kawangware Primary School in the midst of the sprawling Kawangware area of Nairobi.
A professional teacher and a woman whose heart drips with humility, Irene took up the task of designing special lessons for pupils who ought to know how to read, but are not able to. Her aim is to ensure they are at par with others at their level of education, and against whom they are bound to compete in national examinations.
“Giving these children the ability to read empowers them in many ways,” she says. “It sounded very peculiar to me that a Class Eight student, who is just months away from sitting for national exams, was not able to read. How would she tackle the questions?”
If Alice cannot read, she cannot understand the questions, or the instructions, in the exams, which means she is certain to answer wrongly, even when she knows the right answers. What follows is poor performance in the final primary school exams, dashing her hopes of proceeding to secondary school, and dreams of going to college.
Dropping out of school increases the likelihood of early marriage and teen pregnancies. For many, it also means joining the menial work pool, and struggling with poverty.
But this will not be the path Alice and her friends follow, if Irene has anything to do with it. The former primary school teacher is determined to give these youngsters a boost, by at least ensuring they can read the questions in the exams.
She conducts reading lessons at Kawangware Primary School for Standard Six, Seven and Eight pupils every weekday, from 10am to 1pm. There are 60 pupils enrolled in the class, a far cry from the five she started with in 2008.
Those who know her as a former teacher at Makini High School and Consolata School might say that Irene is simply being her natural self, and doing a job she loves. But there is more to it than that: She says that her drive to start the reading programme was ignited by a vision to make the world a better place and fuelled by her desire to work for God through the women’s ministry at her church.
Humble beginnings
Before this call to empower the young, Irene was in the United Kingdom between 2002 and 2005, working as an assistant at nursing homes. She met Alice while conducting a pastoral programme with other women from her church in the Kawangware and Jamhuri areas. Her husband and children supported her plans of starting reading lessons for children who could not read.
She recalls: “I had nothing, so we began the project humbly. The school management offered one empty but dilapidated classroom for the programme. We sought help from various quarters, and were lucky to receive a consignment of library books from Braeburn. They also refurbished the classroom we were using, making it a more friendly place for the children.”
Irene is originally from Zimbabwe. While on a scholarship in Britain in the late 1970s, she met and was charmed by a Kenyan, Dr Francis Wambugu Maina, who had also travelled abroad on a scholarship. The love story blossomed, and before she knew it, Irene was also a Kenyan.
She admits that initially, when she was much younger, she did not like teaching, but she has come to love it so much that she offers classes in exchange for nothing but soulful satisfaction.
Thirty-three years of marriage and three children later, Mrs Maina has no doubt that she is on Earth for this purpose of offering children a second chance at learning how to read. She calls her brain child Kusoma tu; Kiswahili for ‘just reading’.
With a team of volunteers, she provides tailor-made classes meant to improve the reading abilities for pupils from Standard Six going up. With the help of her team, she is coming up with unique syllabuses — which incorporate drawings and words — to teach children how to read. She would love to see the programme expand to other parts of Kenya where there are children finishing primary school without being able to read.What makes her happy is when a pupil who joined her programme unable to read ‘love’, leaves being able to read ‘community’.
As Irene Rufaro, she fell in love with a Kenyan. Now, as Mrs Maina, she is no doubt a Kenyan with the interests of her country’s children at heart.
