You would consider it unthinking that a person would drop out of school, especially now, in the 21st century. Yet she, like many children in my village, is just another statistic down that road. This is fuelled by the fact that parents are not getting a breather in between the short holidays to organise their finances, factoring in the inflation.
With time, she has grown to resent herself and school even more. She knows that being in school deprives her family of the most basic needs. She cannot remember the last time they took tea with sugar, ate eggs or bought bread.
Her parents have resorted to selling all the produce from the farm to raise her fees. That notwithstanding, she is always sure to get sent home for fees. Despite their best efforts, her parents never seem to raise enough.
In my village, as in many others in Kenya, the economy is sustained by subsistence farming. A day’s wage for tilling land is the equivalent of half a litre of cooking oil at the moment, Sh200. Yet, in a classic Maria Antoinette moment, a senior politician quoted more than double that price when asked what he thought a loaf of bread goes for. To be so out of touch! Must be nice.
To keep a child comfortable in a boarding school in Kenya, you need on average Sh70,000 a year. Any parent will attest to this and one thing it’s doing is breaking the backs of parents, if not keeping children out of school
And even then, these jobs are hard to come by. In an ideal month, where her parents could get jobs six days a week consistently, her total household income could not cover half her fees. To add insult to injury, she is not the brightest in school. She believes she is dumb and, therefore, wasting her parent’s hard-earned money.
Perhaps this is the biggest flaw in the outgoing 844 system: children are conditioned to believe they are dumb when they don't get As or top their classes. Many teachers will tell you that you will never see the doors of a university and that you will amount to nothing.
The irony. Some of our very wealthy politicians are in constant scuffles with the IEBC about the credibility of their degrees. That is not to say the measure of a man’s success is in his money but in his honour and integrity. These passive-aggressive phrases do a number on the self-esteem of otherwise gifted students.
That going to school meant tea without bread during tea break and sticking to ill-fitting shoes is something she did not mind. It is the anguish her ageing parents are going through she could not endure. Her love for education was clouded by the hurdles that surround her. So now, dropping out seems like the most practical decision she can make for herself and the ultimate sacrifice she can make for her family, who need it but would never ask of, or expect that, from her.
Recently, there was a story of a young boy from Kakamega who was supposed to get admitted to Form 1 in Nanyuki High School. His father, a boda boda rider, escorted him to school but disappeared on arrival. This is probably a father who had no money to pay for boarding fees, compulsory uniforms or pocket money. This is a father who could not face his son and tell him that the only thing he could afford was the means to take him to school. He probably felt that he had failed him even after he had done his best. To break a man like that.
There have been so many stories about Form 1 students who could not join primarily because of financial issues. Kenyans have always stood up for and with them to fundraise and ensure they were enrolled. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. The mass of the stories, the more deplorable, the sadder ones, are the ones that never make it to social media.
In truth, fundraising by Kenyans for Kenyans is not a sustainable solution.
This is one story representing the plight of many young boys and girls in the village. A true and classic example of how the vicious cycle of poverty works.
When the child drops out of school, all the odds are already against them. They have no capital to start businesses or the experience thereof. They have no certificates and doing technical courses seems far beyond their reach. They go out in the world with so many odds stacked against them. Life has a way of doing things and perhaps, they are not cast to doom. Yet, hope is not a strategy.
“School principals are asking Kenyan parents to choose between changing school diets and increasing school fees. Parents have asked the principals for another question, as that one only favours those who studied rocket science.” This is a satirical tweet by Gabriel Oguda, but in truth, that’s the reality of many parents today.
Education is only free if the environment is enabling. Education is only free if a willing and able student is able to walk into a school, get a full uniform, and at least get a proper meal during lunch for free and all meals in a boarding school. Basically, being provided with basic needs. There is an effort by the government but there is a long, long way to go. I mean, stationery is necessary, but children cannot concentrate on empty stomachs.
Nowadays, schools charge even a compulsory amount for uniforms before enrolment and yes, you must buy these uniforms from the school; otherwise, you risk your child not getting admitted.
Education will be free when the government steps up to provide enough funding, to ensure the system is running smoothly. Education will be free when schools stop imposing added costs to the already stipulated fees. These include funds channelled to building fences, buying school buses, funding preps, and so on.
In 90 per cent of the schools in Kenya, there is a guaranteed added cost to the fee every term for one thing or another. To keep a child comfortable in a boarding school in Kenya, you need on average Sh70,000 a year. Any parent will attest to this and one thing it’s doing is breaking the backs of parents, if not keeping children out of school.