Ganze Sub County that has previously been in the news for having dilapidated classrooms in its schools has started experiencing a facelift in the education facilities.
The area MP Teddy Mwambire said that 80 per cent of the National Government Constituency Development Fund has been earmarked to improve infrastructure in more than 154 primary schools and 33 secondary schools.
Mr. Mwambire said that at least 60 schools are in dire need of infrastructural development with most of them having to cope with mud walled structures as classrooms and pupils sitting on building blocks as desks.
Speaking after officially launching five modern classrooms at Misufini primary school in Sokoke ward, the MP added that the classrooms are equipped with 20 desks each and that his mission was to construct an entire block of classrooms in each school.
”Eighty per cent of the budget of NGCDF has been allocated to education projects. We have also set aside some funds for security to construct offices for chiefs, DCCs and police stations but our aim is in education,” he said.
”Misufini was in one of the schools which was in a bad state in 2017. The best building was an earth walled classroom and so we decided to build five modern classrooms in addition to six that were constructed by non-governmental organizations last year,” he said.
He called on more donors to invest in infrastructural development in Ganze schools to correspond to the Sh. 100 million annual NGCDF kitty.
”We call upon investors to help in the development of infrastructure in the constituency especially in the education sector,” he said.
Ganze is among the poorest constituency in the country with challenges of infrastructure, low education standards and high poverty levels.
Mr. Harrison Masha who is the chairperson of project management committee at Misufini primary school said that the construction of modern classrooms at the facility had raised the bar and removed the school from the list of shame.
“We had a classroom here that we had nicknamed ‘bad ship’ where pupils used to sit on stones and their clothes could tear away but with the help from donors and NGCDF, all that is history,” he said.
Mr. Julius Kitsao who is the head teacher of Misufini primary school said that when he reported to the school in 2018 there were no structures and both pupils and teachers were sitting under trees.
”Through donors and the NGCDF, I can confidently welcome any visitor to this school, I now have eleven classrooms and an administration block. The only challenge is that there are only four latrines against a population of 360 pupils,” he said.
He said the number of pupils has since increased due to the development from 305 to 360 as children find the place to be in a good state.
The Ganze Sub County director of education Mr. Rashid Hamisi said that many schools in the Sub County were in deplorable state and needed extensive construction.
”More than 60 per cent of the schools in Ganze have mud walled classrooms. I join the MP in calling for donors to support in infrastructural development in schools since this has also affected the performance and enrollment,” he said.