Parents have to wait a little longer to enroll their children in a newly constructed school as it is yet to obtain a licence from the Ministry of Education.
This emerged after Maragua MP Mary Wamaua admitted the management committee failed to obtain a licence for the school even as the NG-CDF made last-ditch efforts to ensure the physical structures were completed at a cost of Sh3.5 million.
On Friday, Ms Wamaua pleaded with the Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha to help the school kick off operations, saying the learners should not remain at home because the ministry has suspended the registration of new learning institutions.
St Paul's Gituamba Secondary School in Kawamanda village was built to save children trekking many kilometres in their quest for education.
Murang’a County Director of Education Annie Kiilu said she was not aware of the school being opened because it lacked the certification to start enrolling learners.
The school had attracted hundreds of day scholars from the neighbouring Sammer and Kamuiru areas.
Residents of Kawamanda village in Maragua ridge, where the school is situated, claimed that many students were looking forward to joining the school as the other nearest institution to their homes was seven kilometres away.
Elijah Thairu, who is in his 60s, said the locals have been suffering because the nearest Maragua Ridge Secondary School can only be accessed by crossing dangerous thickets and seasonal rivers.
“It has been a struggle as all the MPs who have served in Maragua have failed to fund the project until we demanded that the present one suspends other programmes and allocate resources to accomplish our desires,” said Thairu.
Wamaua said residents of Kamuiru and Sammer have no secondary school nearby and they petitioned her to establish St Paul Gituamba even with the Ministry of Education freeze on establishment of new schools.
