Peasant farmers in the semi-arid of Moi Ndabi in Naivasha have teamed up to construct classes in a bid to address the current congestion crisis in public schools. This came as it emerged that the school, which was started back in 1997, had only benefited from four classrooms from the Ministry of Education and area CDF. Under the rare project, the parents from Moi Ndabi primary have been forced to contribute sand, construction stones and cement in a bid to address the existing crisis.
The congestion crunch has been worsened by the high number of students who were transferred to the school after their parents lost their jobs in flower farms following the Covid-19 outbreak.
According to Pastor Duncan Wairegi, a parent, over 90 students were sharing one class due to the limited space and an increase in the number of students. He said that the school which hosted over 1,500 students from poor backgrounds had been forgotten by the national government and local leadership.
“We have been forced to contribute the little we have so that we can address the issues of congestion and quality education in our school,” he said.
Wairegi also noted that unlike other areas, no teacher in the school had been vaccinated against Covid-19 putting the lives of the students in great danger. This was echoed by another parent, Jane Wangari, who termed social-distancing as a foreign term with some classes hosting over 100 students. She said that they urgently required four other classrooms so as to address the issue of congestion which was getting worse every year.
“We have each contributed something small towards this exercise of building the classes after learning that we are on our own,” she said.
On his part, Simon Mwangi, attributed the congestion to the pandemic that had pushed families back to the rural areas after losing their jobs.
“Our biggest fear is the number of teachers who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 as this could have an effect on the lives of the students,” he said.
Speaking on phone, Naivasha MP, Jane Kihara, praised the initiative by the parents noting that CDF was not well funded by the State.
“Its true many schools are facing congestion and this has been worsened by failure by the treasury to release the low funds to constituencies,” she said.