Learning is likely to be paralysed in Shauri Yako Primary School of Homa Bay Sub County in third term after gangsters broke into the stores and stole more than a hundred tablets.
The gangsters broke into the head teacher’s office, deputy‘s office and the store Tuesday evening and disappeared with tablets, laptops, projector, printer, uncollected KCPE certificates and textbooks.
The Tuesday night incident that left three rooms under different buildings broken into come as a shock to the School management and Parents with just a few days to the opening of the schools for the third term next week.
Confirming the incident to KNA in his office, the Head Teacher John Ogutu Omollo said that he received a shocking morning call from the morning Security Guard who had arrived to take over duty from the night Shift guard and upon arrival didn’t find him (night guard) in the office.
Omollo said that the incident prompted him to search for the night guard within the compound but he was nowhere to be found and even his mobile was switched off.
He revealed that the gadgets had been loaded with the content just a week ago when they were undergoing training for the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
“It’s barely a week after we attended the CBC training seminar and we saw to it that the gadgets are fully loaded with content and syllabus for the third term. Whatever was highlighted in the seminar was saved in them. We are now stranded since schools are opening next week and as a school we were fully prepared to handle the students,’’ Omollo said.
He claimed that the incident was likely to interfere with the pupils’ learning for the third term as the class three Pupils are expected to sit for their National Exams in the course of the term.
The head teacher who was accompanied by area Chief Bob Lang’o and the Board Chairperson Joshua Agolla further appealed to members of the public with any relevant information regarding the burglary to confide it to Police officers.
The school boss further revealed that the night shift guard has not been found and that they have reported to the Ridge Guards, the Company that employed him.
It is not clear whether the thieves kidnapped the Security guard since his phone was not going through and he had not reported back to the Guards headquarters in Homa Bay Town neither had he reported back to his house.
While the area Chief Bob Lang’o said the theft might have been done by someone who is familiar with the school environment.
“How did the gangsters break the doors of only three offices where the gadgets were kept? It means at least one of them was familiar with the environment,” said Lang’o.
On his part, Agolla termed the incident as a setback to the school since the remaining number of the Tablets is small compared to the high number of students in the school.
The incident left the rooms in disarray with books and other stationeries scattered around the buildings.
The matter was reported to Homa Bay Police Station and investigations are underway to hunt the thieves.
By Godwine Ochieng and Davis Langat
