Barely 4 days after the full reopening of schools for all learners, and as learners across the nation continue to settle into their institutions of learning, a school in Tiati constituency in Baringo county lack adequate teachers.

Some of their social measures are making education difficult as the constituency is tucked deep in the hot and dry section of Baringo county, a constituency that struggles with the provisions of learning due to lack of enough learning institutions and teachers.

In Loiwamoi Primary School, lessons are being conducted by volunteers including a preacher who would normally be preaching the gospel but has had to do the math lessons since the number of teachers here just doesn’t add up.

The school that was established three years ago is yet to receive basic English, Kiswahili and Mathematics teachers from the Ministry of Education. Thanks to Pastor Isaac who volunteers to teach learners all the three subjects.

At Sukut primary school the narrative is similar. The school has one teacher. In a video by NTV aired on 7th, January 2021, only seven girls are seen in class as a bigger number of schoolgirls in the region fell prey to FGM and early marriages over the nine-month stay-at-home period.

Boys are also not in class as all the boys from this school are said to be undergoing circumcision and traditional rights that follow according to the Tugen culture. After circumcision, some consider themselves adults they marry and raise families.

Lack of proper infrastructure and resources in the constituency has left the Baringo boy and girl child at a great disadvantage. With a lack of support to scale through education young brilliant minds settle for less in early marriages, teenage pregnancies for girls while the boy child either marries and assumes adulthood early as some of their peers find manual jobs.

FLOODS TURNING EDUCATION INTO MESS

16 primary and secondary schools in Baringo County flooded with water from Lakes Baringo and Bogoria affecting more than 5,000 learners. The learners have reportedly been relocated to other learning institutions to ensure they continue with learning.

Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya said officials from the Ministry of Education were in the area collecting data on the affected schools, which the government will use in coming up with a lasting solution.

Some of the affected schools are Loruk, Sokotei, Ngambo, Kiserian, Salabani and Lake Baringo primary and secondary schools. Others are Ng’enyin, Noosukro, Rugus, Lorok, Leswa, Sintaan, and Lake Bogoria Primary Schools.

Data from the County Department of Education points that 22 ECDE centres have also been affected by flooding in Baringo North and Baringo South sub-counties.