Long school holidays: The headache of most Kenyan parents

By STANDARD on SUNDAY TEAM

Children have always been a blessing to family and society. But for Jacinta Wambui, the next two months will be tricky.

“My husband and I are causal workers. This is the only way we raise money for food and school fees,” the mother of four told The Standard on Sunday at her  home in Thaithi Village, Nyeri County. At the beginning of next term, the family will have to pay almost Sh20,000 in school fees for the children. But her immediate concern is the here and now of the next two months.

For the first time this year, school-going children will be on vacation for more than two months. Though a blessing and a time of reunion, reflection and relaxation for families, the high cost of living and harsh economic realities are forcing many parents to either dig deeper into their pockets or sink further in debt to finance holiday spending habits.

Bigger headache

Others remain a worried lot as the long vacations also come with unlimited unsupervised time, increasing the risk of truancy among children, who experts warn are already less structured in a world where parents have little time to offer guidance and direction.

“Solutions must be sought,” says Wambui. “They are my children and I love being with them, but when they are in school I get space to breathe financially.”

She earns a paltry Sh150 a day. The biggest chunk of her daily meal budget goes to maize flour.  “When they are at school, we use 2kgs per day, now, we are forced to use 3kg of flour per meal,” she says as she separates the whites from the coloureds in a pile of clothes she is washing.

As a child, things were much simpler. Children were sent to aunts or grandmothers and they spent their days chasing after cows and chicken. Not any more.

“Now things are different. Everything requires money, even in the rural area. I cannot dare take the children to my parents or relatives, who are also struggling to put food on the table,” Wambui says.

Catching up

For some parents, the bigger headache is how to keep their children occupied and focused over this period and so they end up looking to teachers for help.

Consolata Luta, a single mother of three, has already enrolled her children, who are in government school, into a private institution for tuition to compensate the time they wasted when teachers went on strike. She believes her children have some catching up to do.“I am ready to dig deeper into my pockets to make sure my children catch up and even be ahead of the syllabus like students in private schools,” Luta, a tailor in Mombasa told The Standard on Sunday.

She says if the worse comes to worst, she will consider hiring a private tutor.

Experts, however, warn against this, terming it a form of escapism. “Parents have been hiding behind this reason to ship their children back to school as soon as they get home. When will they ever spend time with them,” Eunice Kanyungu, a Nairobi-based child counsellor cautions.

Kanyungu says  such a move instills the wrong kind of ideals into a developing child.

“First, a child grows up putting education on a pedestal and as the only means of achieving his true potential. He puts too much emphasis on it and neglects other areas he might be better at,” she says.

Kanyungu says holidays are there for a purpose and the break away from books is a much-needed interlude.

“In fact, with the current curriculum that has been criticised for churning out robots, parents should take this time to ground their children. Teach them more about life, about their history and get to know them more,” Kanyungu suggests.

Most people argue that all parents would want to do this. But the realities of modern-day life steer them towards a more practical solution.

“No parent would not want to stay home with his children. I might as well spend the whole day walking with them in the park, but in the evening it is me they will look up to for that plate of rice,” Jared Mudachi, a 36-year-old father of two in Nairobi argues.

Bad company

He says life is not a bed of roses and some aspects of family life like spending a lot of time with one’s children are eventually sacrificed. “Maybe I will do that when I have money working for me. Maybe a good education will give them the choice of staying home with their children,” he adds.

The fear of his children getting involved with bad company stalks Juma Bakari every single day that his child is not in school.

“They could end up joining bad groups…take drugs or get into dangerous relationships,” says the Likoni resident.

In Eldoret,  Isaiah Galagali ponders on what to do with his children this festive season. The college tutor believes the long holidays are a welcome break and that the family will have enough time to play catch-up.

He, however, shares the same fears as Wambui from Mathira. “Before the holidays I was spending around Sh300 per day on food. But now that the kids are home, my budget will go up to Sh500 per day,” Galagali says, and although he would once in a while like to take his family out for a good time, he just doesn’t see where the money will come from.

Though daunting, Wambui and her husband walk into the festive season with their heads held high and shoulders out straight.

“Somehow we will manage,” she says. “This is not the first Christmas and it will not be the last,” she says.

Next to her, three of her youngest children play with each other. The eldest, a form two student, sits some distance away. All four of them excited about the prospects Christmas may bring.

Report by Daniel Wesangula, Sammy Mose, Henry Kwenya, kevin Tunoi, Stanley Mwahanga