Out of the 35 private schools in Moyale Sub-county 11 of them have been shut down.
This follows a directive by Education Cabinet Secretary (CS), Prof. George Magoha for the schools to be inspected and closure of schools that do not meet the threshold to run as private schools.
While confirming the closure in his office after inspection of schools in the entire sub-county on Wednesday, the Moyale Assistant County Commissioner-One (ACC I), Victor Wanjohi said most of the schools that were closed had poor infrastructure and were not registered with the Ministry of Education.
Wanjohi said all the schools affected were primary schools and added that there were no secondary school students affected by the crackdown.
He said 1,300 pupils are the ones who have been affected but clarified that they have been relocated to other schools to allow them complete their third term lessons.
“It came to our notice that some of these schools had one toilet which was being shared by both boys, girls and the teachers whereas their sanitation was very poor bearing in mind that water is scarce in Moyale and high quality of hygiene needs to be put in place to avert water borne diseases,” Wanjohi said.
The ACC further said that around a hundred teachers who were teaching in those private schools were all trained but had not registered with Teachers Service Commission as required for staff teaching in a private or a public institution.
The administrator said that some individuals started schools even without passing through the Ministry of Education for registration and some had even converted their homes into schools and added that children were learning in an environment which is uninhabitable.
The team which conducted the inspection of the schools included the Public health department, the ministry of education and the sub-county security team warned the proprietors of the schools to maintain the ministry of education specifications failing which more of them will be closed down.
Wanjohi said the inspection was carried out in an open and transparent manner and reiterated that there was enough evidence and substantive reasons why the schools had to be closed down.
The administrator however, said that the affected schools will only be allowed to continue operating after another inspection by the same team verifies they have met all the requirements and specifications as stipulated by the ministry of Education.
By Gatana Muchira
