Murang'a public schools crowded due to ban on levies

MURANG’A: Stopping secondary schools from collecting development levies has led to congestion in classes and dormitories. According to Murang'a Secondary School Heads Association chair Willie Mwangi Kuria, this has been the situation in many institutions in the last two years following a Government order.

Some schools have been forced to rehabilitate unused facilities and turn them into classrooms and dormitories to accommodate more learners. Speaking to The Standard on Friday last week, after chairing a head teachers' meeting, Kuria said majority of the extra county schools were forced to admit large number of students with less than 300 marks in KCPE.

He claimed many of the schools had classes with over 60 students, which might affect their performance in national exams.
"This forced some of the schools to look for other students with higher marks in KCPE to increase their chances of performing well in Form Four national examinations," said Kuria who is also the principal at Murang'a High School.

Parents at Kahuhia Girls High School, were on Friday told that the institution needed a bigger dining hall extension and new dormitories to cope with increased number of students. The principal Beth Githaiga said an old classroom constructed in 1961 had been renovated to accommodate Form One students.

"Kahuhia Girls has had four streams, but we have been forced to increase Form One and Two to five streams," said Githaiga.

At Kiaguthu Boys in Kahuro sub-county, the Principal Wilson Kamunya said the administration is struggling to cater for the large number of students."The extra county schools have been forced to take in thousands of students who missed national schools," said Kamunya.