It was a typical weekday when just about everyone is at work, children are in school and business owners are busy trading their wares.
This writer, while taking a random walk and a break from the computer, was strolling in the neighbourhood.
A young lad passed by very fast while carrying some impressive pieces of art.
I ran after him and asked if he was selling the pieces. He said yes and I quickly took two pieces for Sh500.
But the boy was looking quite anxious and was hurrying off somewhere. Curiously I asked how old he is.
“17-years-old,” he responded shyly. Why was he not in school?
I quickly learned that he lives with his parents in Gachie, a small satellite town in Kiambu county, half an hour’s walk across the ridge from where he was hawking his art.
“My parents have no money to take me to school, so I help my father in the workshop to make these art pieces,” he said.
The government, keen to see every child does not miss classes, has waived tuition fees for learners.
The state has highly subsidised expenses, leaving a minimal payment for parents to settle.
For 17-year-old John Karuga, the tuition fee was Sh10,885 for the whole year.
He, however, had a tuition balance of Sh6,500 hence, he could not resume learning when schools reopened in January.
Covid-19 hit his father’s business, destroying his only source of livelihood.
His family was hounded out of the small rental house they were living in after rent arrears piled for months.
It took the kindness of a neighbour to host the large family.
The 2020 school year was coming to a close in only a week or so, and the next school year, 2021, would begin 10 days later. It was troubling that this boy could still miss school.
According to a 2020 report by International Labour Organisation, three-quarters (73 per cent) of young people who were either studying or combining study and work before the onset of the Covid crisis were able to transition into online and distance learning.
One in eight young people (13 per cent) were without access to teaching or training; a situation particularly acute among youth in lower-income countries.
Karuga never had any classroom interaction since March 2020 when schools were shut countrywide.
The firstborn in a family of five children has been helping his parents fend for the family. He resorted to doing menial jobs which include learning the skill of artwork and hawking.
He is able to make one art piece in two days.
“I like being in school, but I don’t know how I will ever go back,” the desperate teenager said.
Before friends of the writer rallied to help offset his tuition arrears. He had no hope for his studies.
When schools reopened in January 2021, 16 per cent of girls and eight per cent of boys did not return to school.
This is according to a report released by Population Council Kenya in July titled 'Promises to Keep: Impact of Covid-19 on adolescents In Kenya'.
Karuga was among the statistics.
The report further indicates that school closure in 2020 was a major interruption to adolescents.
A number of students reported they were worried about school fees, repeating classes, getting infected with Covid-19 at school and completing school.
“It affected their mental health in different ways and was expressed as stress, anxiety, depression, worry, shame, embarrassment, isolation, desperation, frustration, sadness, low self- esteem, and stigma,” the report says.
While 27 per cent of boys reported depressive symptoms, 31 per cent of girls recorded similar symptoms.
Sizeable proportions of boys (52 per cent) and girls (39 per cent) reported experiencing physical violence during the pandemic.
About half of all adolescents said they had experienced symptoms of depression and 75 per cent reported skipping meals when their families could not afford food.
This translates to approximately 250,000 girls and 125,000 boys not re-enrolling in school.
Education consultant Benson Wesonga observes that the boy-child is highly disadvantaged when it comes to opportunities and protection from life’s hardships.
“At times, parents and caregivers assume that a boy should survive on his own so he is quickly pushed to the harsh world when things are tough,” Wesonga said.
He added that due to the lack of programmes that look out for boys’ needs, they are prone to more neglect when things are tough.
This reflects negatively on their quality of learning due to absenteeism, and they will be lagging in schoolwork compared to those who resumed classes.
This would mean spending extra money for tuition, which could be hard due to the fact that they missed school because of financial constraints.
“Many of these disadvantages are common in arid areas, the informal and low-income settlements and areas with high populations where resources are strained,” Wesonga said.
The boy child is more likely to be given menial jobs, corroborating the Population Council report that due to job opportunities, a number of boys opted not to resume studies when schools reopened in January 2021.
Based on projections from the 2019 census, the study estimated that 270,350 girls and 137,113 boys who were in school in March 2020 had not returned by February 2021.
Lack of school fees was cited as the major reason among 47 per cent of girls and 21 per cent of boys.
The other key reasons among girls were pregnancy (10 per cent) and early marriages (five per cent), while a few in Wajir (three per cent) did not see the point of returning to school.
Amongst adolescent boys, access to job opportunities was a key reason for opting out of school.
This in turn means that boys are likely to slow down the nation’s journey towards achieving the Vision 2030’s Sustainable Development Goal number 4; to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
“In addressing gender equity, we should not exclude the boys. This is the missing gap because gender inclusivity should address both boys and girls,” Wesonga opines.
When Karuga’s father took him back to school on the opening day of the new school year, he was fighting back tears. He had almost given up on his firstborn son.
Well-wishers have pledged to support the boy’s studies through high school.
However, Wesonga wonders if such ad hoc measures as fundraising for such a case using social support from private citizens are sustainable.
“How many other children are out there engaged in child labour? The government still needs to increase its support to poor parents to enable children to learn,” he said.
The private sector has been offering opportunities to students to continue their studies by offering scholarships for secondary school education.
These scholarships are however highly competitive and the average student misses out on these opportunities as they target learners who score exceptionally well in exams.
These scholarships, offered by banking institutions and other corporate entities need to widen the opportunities to reach more learners who are in subcounty day schools such as where Karuga studies.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
