More than 1.2 million children have dropped out of school in ten North-Eastern counties.
Governors from the counties blamed the high number of dropouts to the ongoing insecurity, inadequate teachers, drought and the recently Covid-19 pandemic.
A total of 107,000 learners failed to report back to their schools when learning resumed early this year following the 9-month Covid-19 pandemic break, the Governors have said.
Speaking at the Frontier Counties Development Council meeting, the County bosses blamed the State, stating that the Ministry of Education has not done enough to approach the issues around a large number of dropouts.
Mandera County alone had 265,000 students drop out of class while Garissa County had 255,000 dropout cases. Wajir had 237,000, Turkana – 224,000 and Marsabit with at least 94,000 dropout cases.
Mandera governor Ali Roba identified lack of teachers as a major challenge currently facing the county education sector.
“In the 10 counties, over 1,295,000 students are out of school while another 107,556 dropped from classes due to the ongoing pandemic,” he said.
He blamed the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for withdrawing teachers from Mandera, Wajir and Garissa on safety grounds as the greatest blow to them.
“Currently we face a shortage of 3,010 teachers in primary schools and another 437 in secondary schools and we are asking the president to intervene,” he said.
Roba reckoned that the continuing drought had hit hundreds of families, with concerns that lives could be lost in the next months.
The deteriorating peace situation, notably the Kapedo, Isiolo-Wajir and the Wajir-Garissa clashes also was mentioned in the meeting as a
the challenge to the education sector.
