By Harold Ayodo
It is a typical scene in a kindergarten as Gloria Awuor, 3, plays with toys in a class at Jilca Junior Academy in Malava.
Sitting on a tiny chair with her feet barely touching the ground, Awuor swings her legs from side to side as her teacher Florence Muse helps her to put together a new educational toy.
In an effort to see their children get ahead and excel in national exams, parents are taking pupils as young as age three to boarding school even as experts argue that it is cruel and tantamount to abandonment. |
She is among six boarders in her nursery class at the school with a long list of children waiting to get boarding space.
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One-week break
When I visited the schools during the December holiday some of the pupils were still in school. I learnt that they would only get a one-week break for Christmas and New Year holidays before school re-opens. But Jilca Academy Principal George Kagunza and deputy Harrison Dooso says not all of the pupils spend their holidays in school.
"Some pupils even go home over the weekends. The rest go swimming on Wednesday and Saturdays in Kakamega," Dooso says.
Everyday the pupils spend two hours in class and the rest of the time on the playground.
"Teacher Florence gives us lorries, cars, dolls and plastersine to play with and I enjoy swinging in the playground," Awuor says. "We are given food including fruits, juice and milk before we go to bed everyday," her classmate Lydia Shamalla, 4, chimes in.
The director Caroline Imbogo says demand for boarding space is overwhelming.
"We were just trying out the idea of a boarding nursery school and did not know whether it would catch on," Imbogo says.
But some experts are concerned about the craze that has seen the age at which pupils join boarding schools reduce each year.
Dr Omoni Ahawo, a sociologist, says bonding starts within the family and taking young children to boarding my stunt their social and emotional growth.
He says a child may wonder why they board while their age-mates are in day schools. The perception that they are being treated differently may cause feelings of abandonment and isolation, which lead to low self-esteem.
Maseno University Head of Sociology and Anthropology Department Erick Nyambedha says parents play a key role in nurturing and educating their children especially in the initial years.
He says academic success does not wholly depend on spending more time with teachers. Parents have the responsibility of mentoring and encouraging them to complete assignment," Nyambedha says.
Best option
"Research shows that children in lower primary whose parents keep track of their school work perform better in class," Nyambedha says.
But Imbogo says for some children boarding may be the best option. "I started a nursery boarding unit because I wanted the many orphans in Western Kenya to have a good education foundation early but parents begged me to admit their children," she says
She says nursery boarding schools have succeeded in more developed countries.
Agreeing with her, parents like Maryann Kimani see nothing wrong with taking pupils in lower primary to boarding school.
"I am a single parent and my job involves travelling…The four house-girls I had last year all disappointed me," says the travel agent who enrolled her daughter aged three in a boarding school.
"Children nowadays start school early…My daughter will have many playmates while getting a good education."
But others like Jane Otieno says one should think twice before taking youngsters to boarding school. Otieno, a teacher at Kisumu Boys High School, took her child to a boarding in Standard Five only to regret her decision. "I realised he was too young to cope with life in boarding…There was a lot of non-academic things he needed to learn from us (parents) Otieno says.
A recent study in the UK suggest that in their zeal to give their children a head start parents may be causing them more harm than good.
Play-based
The study suggests that children should continue play-based learning in nursery schools.
It recommends that formal learning begin at age six. Studies in China where boarding nursery schools are popular — Shangai alone has over 20 such centres — among the middle-class are equally cautious.
Statistics show that over five million children aged six to eight years are boarders in China and the State constructs 3,000 boarding schools annually.
"The children are at an age when they need their parents love and care… Schools must ensure there are enough teachers to guide the babies," says Prof Sang Biao, a lecturer at East China Normal University of Psychology in a recent study.
Imbogo says four teachers care for the six boarding preschoolers at Jilca. She says the teachers have forged a mother-child relationship with the learners.
The boarders are from across the country and their parents have varied reasons for taking the boarding option.
