Elevated schools in staffing crisis

Schools that were elevated to county, extra-county and national status are struggling to fit into their new-found status.

Among other challenges, the schools are struggling to cope with rising enrollment against fewer teachers.

The situation was aggravated by the directive on implementation of fees guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education, as the schools cannot now afford to employ more teachers.

The Government set the new enrollment figures with the schools admitting twice the numbers they used to.

St Albert's Girls Ulanda in Awendo, Migori County has only 26 teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) against a population of more than 1,200 students.

At Kanga High School, the student population is at 1,300 against 53 teachers. Twenty nine are employed by the TSC, while the remaining are contracted by the school.

Nyambaria Boys High School in Nyamira County has a similar problem. It was elevated to national status two years ago.