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Wednesday, 27 May 2009 The role of building school infrastructures has been the

responsibility of the parents while the government employed and paid teachers’ salaries.

However, in many areas of Tana River District, classrooms and administration blocks are
in a sorry state and not because the parents have refused to play their role but they were
unable due to poverty, illiteracy and lack of knowledge regarding education.

In areas dominated by pastoralists, education to them is valueless and to the farming


community, illiteracy dominates hence education to their children lacks importance.

For the pastoralists there are livestock to guarantee life in the village as a reliable source
of income while food is readily available making it unnecessary for the children to get
formal education.

Because the parents among the farming communities did not go to school, taking their
children to school is regarded as out of place.

But the emergence of Constituency Development Fund was a blessing in disguise to both
communities in Tana River District. It is true that if you visit some of the primary
schools, the classrooms are marvelous but virtual empty because those ought to be
learning are grazing cattle or stealing mangoes in their father’s shambas.

A case study is Lenda Primary School in Galole Constituncy. This school has marvelous
classrooms following the introduction of CDF money.

The school had poor building structures but CDF pumped a total of about Sh10 million to
the school for the construction of classrooms and administration blocks.

The amount was too huge for the school committee that, they decided to find a new site
for the construction of the CDF classrooms and eventually the school has now shifted to
the new site leaving the old depleted buildings unoccupied about 5 metres away.

Though the school has benefited from CDF by getting beautiful building structures, the
school enrolment is discouraging. Its enrolment from class 1 - 8 is less than 400 pupils.

According to a senior teacher of the school Madam Malika Kofa, the local community
around the school does not regard education as important to them due to illiteracy.

Ms. Malika said the local village does not have many people who are educated therefore;
it was difficulty for them to encourage their children to go to school.

She said, "We encourage the pupils to take education seriously but when they reach home
the parents do not treat education to be important to them".

She said, the school attendance was not pleasing because the parents do not encourage
their children to go to school instead are told to go and sell mangoes.
Ms. Malika said the nearby village conducts weddings every weekend and school girls
are encouraged by their parents to get married rather than go to school.

She said that last year four girls dropped out of school due to early pregnancies and their
parents were celebrating because the girls were going to be married,

The senior teacher, said, the parents do not respect teachers and at times they backbite the
teachers with their children,

However, she lauded the role played by CDF, saying the school had poor building
structures but now it could be elevated to a secondary school.

She said the school has better classroom blocks in the whole of Galole constituency.
Galole constituency has two boarding secondary schools, that is, Hola Secondary and
Mau Mau Memorial Girls Secondary School.

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