Get them back to school, CR orders
BY COAST NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT
Coast regional commissioner John Elungata has directed chiefs and their assistants to identify form one children who have been unable to report to secondary schools and assist them in Kilifi County.
He asked the local administrators to liasise with the Ministry of Education officials to achieve 100 percent government’s transition policy as the region is at 63 percent so far.
The RC said the chiefs should stand firm on the issue of education, noting that children have a right to basic education regardless of the economic status of their parents.
Speaking during a stakeholder’s forum at Wakala Girls Secondary School in Kilifi North Sub-county of Kilifi County, Elungata directed the grassroots administrators to ensure that all form one students have reported to school by Mid-October.
The administrator who was accompanied by the newly posted regional Police Commander Manase Musyoka, Kilifi County Commissioner Kutswa Olaka among other government officials said only 16 form one girls had reported to Wakala Girls and 34 girls could not be accounted for.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The RC said the government was doing everything to provide the necessary infrastructure that would help learners acquire basic education and asked parents to make sure that their children report to school even if they lack school uniform.
Elungata directed Wakala Location chief to comb his area of jurisdiction and smoke out the 34 form one’s girls who have not reported to school in two weeks’ time.
Elungata directed the grassroots administrators to look out for those who failed to transit to secondary schools in their localities for whatever reason in a bid to help the Ministry of Education achieve its 100 per cent transition policy.
He also decried over rampant teenage pregnancies which he said not only disrupt young girls’ quest for education, but also pose a serious physical and psycho-social health challenges to the young girls.
Elungata has asked the courts to give the maximum jail sentence to any man identified by teenage pregnancy victims as having impregnated them and asked the young mothers after giving birth to go back to school and continue with their education.
“Let us assist these children get education which remains the key to national development,” he said adding that the government was doing everything possible to provide the necessary school infrastructure that would help the learners acquire basic education.
CAMPAIGN
On his part Kilifi County Commissioner Kutswa Olaka said together with his team of National Government Administration Officers (NGAO) have launched a campaign to trace the pupils who have failed to report for form one intake in their respective schools of admission.
Olaka said students who sat for their KCPE exam and are supposed to transit to form one in Kilifi County are 35,857 out of which only 23,030 giving a deficit of 12,827 form one students who have not reported and cannot be accounted for.
The CC said he has tasked his local administration team of chiefs and their assistants to get names of the form one pupils who have not reported and take them to their respective form one school of reporting with the support of their parents in order to attain the 100 percent form one transition.