Education stakeholders in Thika have proposed to have area day schools learn in shifts to avert crowding challenges that has been occasioned by the 100% transition.
Led by Thika MP Alice Ng’ang’a, they said most of the secondary schools in the area have more than 1,000 learners, with day schools feeling the most heat due to the area’s lack of enough schools and high population.
They proposed that the first group of pupils attend school from morning till Midday, while the second lot comes in from Midday till late afternoon.
This, she said, will ensure that all learners are given close supervision by teachers and that they have a conducive learning environment to perform well.
Speaking during a prize giving day at Chania Girls Secondary School for exemplary performance in last year’s Kenya Certificate for Secondary Education (KCSE), the MP said teachers in the area have also been overwhelmed by the huge number of learners.
“This will help address the congestion where you find one class has more than 100 learners being taught by one teacher. By the time the lesson is ending, the teacher has interacted with only a handful of pupils in terms of guiding them. Also, they are overwhelmed,” said Ms Ng’ang’a.
The situation is so dire that last year, the MP working closely with other education stakeholders converted a local primary school, Jamhuri School, into a day secondary school to ease pressure on the few available day schools in the area.
The school, according to the MP, has 220 learners currently, adding that plans are underway to establish another day secondary school in Kamenu ward which has the highest population in the entire nation.
“As we continue constructing new schools to ease pressure on the available few schools, we need to introduce shift learning because the high population in Thika is not doing us any good. Again, the NG/CDF is not enough to construct adequate classrooms,” Ms Ng’ang’a said.
Chania Girls High School Principal Ms Mary Mwangi admitted to the congestion challenges at the school, saying in the last three years, learning in seven out of nine Form One classes has been taking place under the tents despite challenges of scorching sun and rains.
“We have also converted one classroom into a dormitory. We have also done a makeshift dormitory as we wait for the completion of the ongoing one,” she said.
Students who scored A’s in last year’s KCSE were awarded laptops, trophies and other goodies to motivate the current Form Fours to perform well.
By Victory Wangui and Muoki Charles
