Over 200 learners at Nkengecia Primary School in Tigania West along the Isiolo-Meru border may be forced to stay home after their school was relocated to pave way for the ongoing development of the Isiolo International Airport.
In March 2020, the government embarked on the construction of a new school for the learners about seven kilometres from their initial institution.
Following the completion of the new facility in the course of the break, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, parents, teachers and learners were asked to report to thereupon resumption of the academic calendar.
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Pupils wait for teachers at ACK Ngai Ntethia Primary School in Tigania West on January 4, 2021.
Parents, however, raised complaints that their children would have to walk close to 10 kilometres just to get to school.
Following the complaints, Tigania West Member of Parliament John Mutunga constructed one classroom at nearby ACK Ngai Ntethia, adding to three that had already been erected by his predecessor David Karithi.
The MP assured that teachers would be deployed to the school to ensure learning remained uninterrupted. He further assured the parents that he would facilitate the movement of desks from the old school to the new facility.
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Parents and Pupils wait stranded at ACK Ngai Ntethia primary School Tigania West on January 4, 2021
However, when parents reported accompanied their children to the new school on January 6, 2021, they were shocked to find not even a single teacher at the school.
The parents also revealed that student’s desks were yet to be moved from the old school to the new facilities though they had been completed.
The school compound was covered with bushes and thickets and there was no water at the school, with the construction of a tank seeming to have stalled.
“We brought our children to school. There are no desks in the classes, there are no teachers in sight. We are appealing to the government to deploy teachers, as it is our children’s right that they get an education,” one of the parents stated.
“We are happy that this school is closeby because the new one was constructed far away, and our children would get tired when they go to school,” she added.
The parents argued that the situation would prompt some pupils to drop out of school.