School gets free classroom

Olepito Sugar Factory General Manager Gerald Okoth launches a new classroom the company built for Musoma Primary School as a way of addressing shortage of classes in the school. [Ignatius Odanga/standard]

Olepito Sugar Factory has gifted a local primary school a classroom. The firm moved in after Musoma Primary School in Nambale cried for help due to acute shortage of classrooms.

The school, started in 2010 following demands from the local community, does not have a playground. It has only six classrooms against a population of about 400 pupils.

Nambale Sub-county TSC Director Edward Sirimba said the school needed at least 10 classrooms ahead of the roll-out of the Competency Based Curriculum. Musoma's candidates sat the KCPE national exams for the first time last year.

“The commission is committed to ensuring that new schools have enough teachers to help children perform well in examinations,” said Sirimba.

The parents called on the Ministry of Education to buy land for the school. One of the parents, Charles Onyango, said, “We are going to stand with the school for the sake of our children because we wanted them to learn within the area. It is encouraging to see a firm lend a hand to the school."

The classroom was officially opened by Olepito Sugar Factory GM Gerald Okoth.