North Eastern region faces education crisis as 95 schools shut over insecurity

GARISSA: About 95 public schools in the volatile North-Eastern region have been closed due to insecurity posed by terrorists.

Most teachers have failed to report to their stations fearing for their lives.

In Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties, more than 1,000 non-indigenous teachers have refused to return to work since January for fear of terrorist attacks.

Apart from education, other businesses have been affected, with some development projects stalling.

Some investors who had moved to the region have closed shop. Naivas Supermarket, which had employed scores of youths, closed it branch six months after being in operation.

Many health institutions are also facing acute shortage of staff.

Speaking to The Standard Wednesday, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), North-Eastern branch official Ali Abdi said after the terror attack at Garissa University on April 2, more than 400 teachers had failed to show up for the second term due to insecurity.

Abdi said in Mandera County alone, about 699 teachers have fled from the area since November 2014 when 28 people, a majority of them being teachers, were killed after they were pulled out of Mekka bus which was heading to Nairobi from Mandera.

“Of the professionals fled the region, 400 of them were primary school teachers while 299 were from secondary schools. We have a shortfall of 820 teachers in primary and 370 in secondary schools,” he said.

Ismael Barrow, Mandera County education director, said many teachers, including those recently recruited, had not reported to their work stations.

“I doubt if our students will take practicals in the end-year examinations. The students are on their own, helping one another without proper guidance from teachers,” he said.

The Chairman Kenya School Heads Association, Garissa County branch, Abdi Moulid said more than 200 non-local teachers had not yet reported back for duty.

School principals in Garissa County have now appealed to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to employ Form Four leavers from the region as untrained teachers.

Ibrahim Abdullahi, the principal of Sankuri High School said “desperate times call for desperate measures”.

Garissa County Director of Education Aden Sheikh Abdullahi said out of 138 primary schools in the region, proper learning was only taking place in less than a third of them.

Helpful alternative

Garissa Governor Nathif Jama said thus: “We must get a solution to this problem. If Teachers Service Commission has become short of ideas to help us out of the crisis in this crucial sector, we governors from the region will not allow our children to suffer any longer. We will train, employ and deploy teachers to the effected institutions. If that is acting against the law, let it be.”

“TSC is telling us they cannot employ untrained teachers because they are barred to do so by the Constitution. But they are not offering any helpful alternative solution to the problem. The recent insecurity has just compounded the previous education crisis that has been experienced in the region since independent,” said Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi.