School turn out rate in Kirinyaga County standards at 98 percent.
Lands PS Nicholas Muraguri however said the whereabouts of the remaining 2 percent of children in the area, who are yet to report back to school remained unknown.
Muraguri who spoke to the media after making an impromptu inspection of various schools in the county Wednesday, said arrangements have been put in place to go for the children who are yet to report back for schooling.
He told the media at the Good Shepherd Academy, Kerugoya that he was also satisfied with the observance of the Covid-19 protocols as directed by the ministry of health guidelines.
“Of interest to me was that children including those with various challenges especially those we found at the Kerugoya school for the deaf were fully aware of the pandemic and had mastered through their sign language all the preventative measures, hence a huge success in the fight against the virus,” he said.
Accompanied by the area County Commissioner Jim Njoka, the PS also said the government was fully aware of the urgent need to hire more teachers to conform with the standard requirements of the teacher-child ratio.
“The government is concerned with the school enrolment rate as well as provision of quality education, hence the urge for those yet to report back to so immediately to enable us to ensure equitable distribution of available resources,” he said.
The school director at the academy Mugo Mutonge said he had moved fast to decongest the dormitories by ensuring only double-decker beds and not triple ones were being used at the facility.
“We have also ensured our classrooms were in total conformity with the guidelines provided by the government of 1.5 meters between children. We also put up modern dining hall last year in readiness for the children this term,” he said
Mutonge said due to the prevailing economic hardships some 54 parents mostly from Nairobi County had withdrawn their children from the facility but 94 others had joined them during this term.
By Irungu Mwangi
