Professionals and senior government officials from the Gusii community have been urged to embrace, ‘adopt a school’ programme, geared towards enhancing education standards at their rural homes.
Interior and Coordination of National Government Cabinet Secretary (CS), Dr. Fred Matiang’i made the appeal, while presiding over the laying of a foundation stone for the construction of a proposed Sh80 million multi-purpose lecture theatre, at Sironga Girls High School in Nyamira County.
Dr. Matiangi recalled that it is from such humble education backgrounds that majority of the current crop of local leaders were nurtured, hence they should, therefore, play a key role in improving them.
“Most of the professionals and senior government officials from Gusii you see today, undertook their studies from small schools near their homes, whose conditions were humbling, because that is the best parents sacrificed to provide and despite those ‘unfavorable’ learning conditions, we never lost focus on our target to score exemplary grades,” Dr. Matiang’i observed.
Matiangi noted that many of those who started humbly managed to excel academically from rural primary and secondary schools, with not very comfortable learning conditions.
“It is only fair to go back to those village schools and start collaborating closely with school principals and school boards of management, to advise you on how you can financially chip in and support, to improve the learning conditions of those schools, as a way of giving back to your communities,” added the CS.
“Our children are studying in privately owned schools with State- of- the- Art learning environments, because we have been lucky to secure good paying jobs or are running thriving businesses in some of the big towns in the country, courtesy of the education we got from our rural schools,” Matiangi noted.
He saifd it is important to support those rural schools and improve them because to a large extent they shaped the current socio-economic status of life many Kenyans are proud of.
The CS pointed out that with the President’s 100 percent transition directive, resources and facilities in secondary schools are over-stretched, more so for those schools elevated to national school status, because parents are scrambling for admission of their children in such schools.
He vowed to personally commit himself to focus on mobilizing resources and closely monitor school development projects geared towards enhancing capacity of the affected schools, to ensure children study in conducive environments and pursue their dream careers with ease.
“I want to congratulate Sironga Girls School Chief Principal for prudent management of resources and running of education programmes without hitches because controlling a student population of 2200 with just 100 teachers is no mean feat,” noted the CS.
He also encouraged the school students to work hard and acquire good grades, adding that quality education is a key asset which will give them unimaginable opportunities to pursue their dream careers and at the same time equalize them with their fellow students and even people from other parts of the world.
By Deborah Bochere
