Alice Gaiti, Kamiti Primary School headteacher, had to devise a technique to ensure boys at the school are free to speak out about what they are going through.
Gaiti said most boys need mentorship and a friendlier attitude.
Kamiti Primary is a mixed-integrated educational institute in Kahawa.
“I always strive to mentor them and discreetly summon the parents to school and advise them to take their responsibility as role models,” Gaiti said.
The school has gone ahead to initiate regular counselling meetings for parents and their children.
“The major issues affecting our boys are inner-city problems of drugs, cults and petty crime,” she said.
The sessions are facilitated by school board members, clergymen and professional counsellors.
In case a male learner is going through social and academic challenges, Gaiti assigns a male teacher to help the boy.
“This intervention is often informed by the Wednesday meetings, but sometimes the boys independently come to my office to share with me,” she said.
Gaiti narrated the most notable experience in her quest to ensure boys are well taken care of.
Her narration was published in the TSC monthly magazine.
“I almost failed to notice the tell-tale signs of a boy in great trouble. This boy came from a home headed by a single parent who worked in a nightclub as a cleaner,” she said.
“She would go to the club very early in the morning, leaving the son to prepare for school on his own. Sometimes she would get some money for breakfast and bus fare for the boy who would just manage to make it to school in time.”
Gaiti said to save time she would send the money via mobile money transfer service to a kiosk owner where they lived who would give the boy breakfast items and cash for transport.
“This went on unnoticed by us for a long time. But on the day of one paper in the national examination, this boy waited for his mother to get back home from her job because he did not have transport money to get to school,” she said.
“His mother turned up in the nick of time and the boy barely made it for the exam. I questioned him after the paper and got shocked by the depth of uncertainty of getting breakfast and bus fare that the boy had been living with all along.”
Gaiti said she got proactive in enhancing guidance and counselling with a keen eye on the boy child.