The buck stops with the ministry of Education

It is never easy to accept the death of a loved one, no matter the circumstances. Most families would rather spend their last penny treating a sick member just to preclude death, even when the ailment is clearly terminal.

One can, therefore, imagine the numbing shock on getting news of a child’s death; a child who, a few minutes earlier, was full of exuberance. A child who embodied hope for the family’s future and was a source of joy to the parents. That is the pain families of those who lost their children in the Bombolulu Girls tragedy (1998), Nyeri High (1999), Kyanguli Boys (2001), Asumbi Girls Boarding Primary (2012), Stephjoy Secondary (2015), Moi Girls Nairobi (2017), Precious Talent (2019) and now Kakamega Primary early this week have to endure. This list is not exhaustive; there are many more sad cases I have not mentioned.

Instructively, after each of the tragedies, government-appointed committees were set up to establish underlying causes and to find solutions. The usual perfunctory platitudes from the political class inevitably followed. Unfortunately, they merely follow a routine because that is as far as anything goes until the next tragedy strikes. Even where workable recommendations have been given, including specifications for building classrooms and dormitories to minimise the risk of death in case of an emergency, little, if anything, has ever gone past the paper stage.  

Safety for learners does not just lie in the solidity of the buildings that house their classrooms. It does not restrict itself to metal grills in windows and along verandas or wide escape doors in case of an emergency; the scope of safety is wide. Health safety, mental safety, and physical safety, especially in that open space between school and the child’s home is of paramount importance.

In the last regard, Kakamega Primary School, and indeed other schools within Kakamega town have lost a number of pupils to unknown killers in the last few years largely due to the early reporting hours that pupils keep in their quest for knowledge.  

Children walking by themselves along bushy, lonely paths as early as 5 am are exposed to any number of dangers. Besides child molesters, rapists and abductors, the early morning chill is not good for the pupils’ health. That chill is largely responsible for the rise in respiratory diseases, some of which lead to pneumonia and more complications in those who are asthmatic. The Economic Survey 2018 shows that 21,584 children died of pneumonia in 2017 alone. Kakamega is listed as one of the counties with the highest incidences of pneumonia deaths in the country.

It does not help that most of the pupils lack warm clothing in the form of sweaters and jackets, and are often found shivering in worn shirts, tunics, and shorts due to poverty. Some of them not only have to contend with the cold, but they also leave their homes without having taken breakfast because their parents cannot afford it.

The risk factors earlier mentioned revolving around the hours that children across the county keep, and which contravene school hours set by the Ministry of Education vide Kenya Gazette supplement No 37 of April 8, 2015. The notice set the hours as; Monday to Friday from 8 am to 3.30 pm and emphasised that ‘no day institution of basic education shall require learners to report earlier than 7:15 a.m’. The inability by the Ministry of Education to enforce its own regulations is partly responsible for the tragedies in schools across the country, a fact that robs the ministry of any claim to moral authority to act with indignation after school calamities. Some of the documented tragedies in primary schools occurred outside official hours.

Inspectorate department

The Kakamega Primary School tragedy occurred barely a month after Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and his team visited the school. To expect that his team should have spotted some of the safety risks, like missing guard rails along the stairs in this public school is not expecting too much. Approval for students’ occupation of the building must have come from the Education ministry’s inspectorate department, which should bear responsibility for the calamity. The headteacher and his staff should not be victimised in any way.

To conclude, depression levels in Kenya are on the rise. Suicide cases in children as young as nine years have been reported. We are building a society of sociopaths who cannot socialise and fit into society because the obsession with school grades denied them a chance to be children; socialise, play, explore, experiment on their own and learn. A child who spends an average of 13 hours in school, seven days a week is a liability in later life.

The determination to achieve 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary without corresponding infrastructural development is a recipe for health problems, not to mention stampedes.

Mr Chagema is a Copy editor at The [email protected]