@Alicewangechi
As Form 4 students prepare to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, teachers from day secondary schools have said improper facilitation has continued to disadvantage learners.
Many of the day secondary schools lack essential facilities such as laboratories despite some of the mandatory science subjects.
In Gikuo Secondary School, learners are forced to travel tens of kilometres to Murang’a High School in Murang’a town.
The school has a room designated for a laboratory but has been unable to raise funds to equip it with the necessary apparatus and chemicals.
Teachers at the school started three years ago are forced to teach theory and schedule visits to the extra-county school for practical lessons.
Samuel Mwangi, a teacher, told the Star that they schedule one visit every term to the school to expose learners to practical lessons.
“We have been facing serious challenges teaching physics, chemistry and biology, requiring a laboratory with the proper apparatus. We only teach theory and wait for the scheduled visits to Murang’a High School for the practicals,” Mwangi said.
Without a school bus, the school with 250 students is also forced to rely on Murang’a High School for learners to be transported to and from the school.
This, the teacher said, makes it difficult for students to perform well in sciences despite excelling in humanities.
“After the visit, we go back to our school and have to remind them what they saw which makes learning difficult,” he added.
Murang’a High School’s management, he noted, avails its facilities for free, giving the day school learners a chance to interact with the necessary apparatus and chemicals.
“In the visit, we have to combine all the three sciences in a few hours because Murang’a High School students also have to continue with their studies,” he said.
Mwangi who spoke while escorting a group of form three students to the school for the end of year practical examinations said despite doing their best, the learners’ poor exposure degrades their results.
He appealed to the government to consider capacitating day schools to offer better quality education saying many day school institutions suffer similar challenges.
Peter Wanyama, a physics and maths teacher at Kambirwa secondary school had also escorted a group of learners for end term examinations.
He said the school has 150 students who are willing to learn despite lacking the vital laboratories.
“We have an empty room that has no equipment and we struggle to facilitate learning in science subjects,” he said.
The school was started recently and will have its first batch of form four candidates next year, with Wanyama calling on the state to support day schools with the proper infrastructure to give learners an equal chance with their counterparts in boarding schools.
Murang’a High School principal Willie Kuria reiterated that many day schools have been struggling to facilitate learning activities due to a lack of funds.
This, he said, has been worsened by the delayed disbursement of capitation by the national treasury that leaves day schools struggling to stay afloat as they have no alternative source of funds.
“At my school, we may not have excess facilities but at least we can remain afloat and assist neighbouring day schools who can’t even afford basic lab items,” Kuria who is also the chairperson of Kenya Secondary School Heads Association said.
“Today, we are hosting Form 3 students from Gikuo and Kambirwa Secondary Schools, and most day schools are facing the same issues,” he added.
Last year, 48,000 KCSE candidates scored an E which Kuria said should jolt the government to check the quality of education being provided in schools.