Guess, you probably heard this songs, by Kj of Redykyulass and Robba of Kleptomaniax which sings of a Kenyan Somali who is proud to have obtained a D+ KCSE grade, a sorry state of how education in Northern Kenya is, a region inhabited by Kenyans of Somali ethnic group.
Education in Northern Kenya has long been used as a tool of marginalization of ethnic kenyan somalis along with other issues like insecurity so that residents can't be at par in development with the rest of Kenya. Often do you find Government officials emphasising on reducing the illiteracy level of the northerners and everyone pretends that all is fine.
For us who have been schooled in NEP, we know of how our region has and still being treated regarding education. Countless problems are affecting education in NEP Kenya, these include among them, the improper administration of government strategy towards education in NEP due to lack of teachers or in the case of teachers going for transfers without better reasons or teachers absconding duties and so on, lack of books, lack of university trained teachers where the best sometimes you can get is a diploma trained teacher and volunteers. over that, the harsh climatic conditions that forces nomadic families to move to other areas in search of pasture, sometime moving far from schools, leaving students stranded and so on.
The story is long.......but wait, someone has seen some sense, a special outfit to handle education in marginalised areas is in the pipeline and the Ministry of Education is fine-tuning the policy paper seeking to establish Nomadic Areas Education Commission. Addressing Parliament moments before MPs passed the Sh117 billion 2008/2009 Budget for his docket, Education minister Sam Ongeri said he was aware of challenges facing learners and teachers in the arid areas, “and all must be done to erase inequalities”.
