State told to increase primary schools in Nairobi

By Margaret Kanini and Anjellah Owino

Nairobi, Kenya:  Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero wants the number of public primary schools increased to accommodate the high population in the city.

The governor told a meeting of teachers, parents, and Government officials that the increase in the city’s population had strained the learning facilities in schools.

“Most of the 205 public primary schools that we have in the county were built at a time when the population of Nairobi was under two million. Nairobi today has close to five million people but there has hardly been an increase in the number of public primary schools,” Dr Kidero said.

The governor and the education directors agreed that the strained facilities were responsible for the poor performance of public schools in national examinations.

“The performance of public schools in the KCPE examination has been on the decline since 2003. It is only last year that there was an improvement of six points, which was still below the performance attained in 2003,” Kidero said.

Nairobi County was ranked seventh out of the 47 counties. The governor said he expects Nairobi to lead other counties in the coming national examinations.

He said that the quality of education in public schools in the region is in a very sorry state.

“Nairobi County has the lowest transition rate in the country, currently standing at about 52 per cent compared to the national rate of 78 per cent. This is a very uncomfortable situation that calls for a conscientious and deliberate plan that must be executed urgently,” he said.

The county education bosses and officials attributed the poor performance to limited facilities and poor infrastructure, low staffing, lack of commitment from parents and demotivated teachers.