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Kenya: Council Seeks Land for Schools
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The Nation (Nairobi)
21 July 2008
Posted to the web 21 July 2008
Mathias Ringa
Nairobi
Mayor Ahmed Mohdhar has asked individuals with large chunks of land in Mombasa to sell some of it to the local authority to ease congestion in schools.
The council is planning to expand 96 primary schools and build 26 new ones. The move will benefit about 72,000 pupils.
"Municipal schools are congested because there is no land for expansion or to build an extra 26 schools," the mayor said Sunday.
"I am therefore appealing to private landowners to sell part of it to the council for the construction of new schools," he said.
Mr Mohdhar said the council schools had a shortage of 885 classrooms, 22,000 desks, 1,291 toilets, 125 offices and 65 staff rooms.
"It is worrying that some pupils in council schools sit on the floor. We want to address these problems urgently to curtail the poor performance in national examinations," he said.
Build toilets
The mayor said a foreign bank had pledged to help build toilets at all the municipal schools at a cost of Sh100 million.
He was reacting to concerns raised by the Municipal Education Officer, Mr Francis Tsuma who said there was no room for expansion of existing institutions or the building of new one because rich individuals had grabbed public utility land.
Mr Tsuma had complained that lack of facilities had adversely affected municipal institutions' performance in national examinations. He said teachers were finding it difficult to carry our their duties effectively as some schools had classes of 160 pupils compared to between 20 and 40 in private schools.
"Private schools have an edge in national examinations because they have adequate facilities and smaller classes," he said.
Teacher shortage
Meanwhile, the Kenya National Union of Teachers said yesterday that Mombasa and two other neighbouring districts have a shortage of 900 teachers.
Mombasa Knut branch executive secretary, Ahaya Juma Ahaya said only 40 teachers were recruited last year, far short of the required levels as pupils were increasing due to free primary education.
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"Teachers are overwhelmed by the huge number of pupils. How can a single teacher handle more than 100 pupils?" Mr Ahaya asked.
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