Parents and leaders in Embu Town have appealed to the Government to intervene and have a primary school established in the area six years ago registered to attract learners.
Embu Dallas Primary School established through funds from Manyatta Constituency Development Fund (CDF) has since 2017 remained deserted save for one classroom of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) that has a few learners.
Despite being located in an urban area and well-endowed with infrastructures running into millions, the school compound has been reduced into a den of thieves and where drug peddlers and abusers do their illegal activities.
Many parents have kept off the school and the few who enroll their children for preschool education end up transferring them to other schools for primary education as a result of its non-registration as a learning institution.
“Parents have been pulling out their children after completing Pre-Primary Two owing to transition challenges occasioned by failure to have the school registered,” said ECDE teacher Pauline Njeru.
She said no parent wants to keep their children in the school out of fear that they may end up not sitting for national examinations and so they prefer to move them to other schools after completing pre-primary education.
Teacher Pauline said the school has seven classes and enough desks to accommodate learners from Grade One to Four comfortably.
“In 2019 we started Grade One class but parents declined to enroll their children as a result of non-registration of the school,” she said while appealing to the relevant authorities to expedite the process.
Parent Benjamin Murimi said his children have to walk a long distance to their school which is risky because they have to cross several roads to and from school yet there is a school nearby that can easily serve them.
Area (Kirimari Ward) MCA Ibrahim Swaleh said it was unfortunate that such a huge investment that was meant to assist the community around had been reduced into a white elephant project.
He said it was ridiculous that the hardest bit of putting up infrastructure had been done yet the simplest task of registering the school was yet to be achieved six years down the line.
Swaleh said the area has around 18, 000 households that could be served by the institution if due diligence is done.
“According to me, this is a waste of public resources and I call upon area MP and the Ministry of Education to move with speed to have this school registered so that it can serve our people,” he said.
By Samuel Waititu
