Drought holding education to ransom in Kenya

Njagi Amos has been a teacher for 19 years and is currently the Head Master at Marsabit Boys School in Marsabit, Northern Kenya. He has moved from school to school as years of drought drained the natural and financial resources from the region, making it more and more difficult for schools to remain open and for children to attend classes.

Marsabit is suffering from increased droughts due to climate change resulting in families going without water and food prices going through the roof. In turn, schools are struggling to provide food and water to their students while parents are unable to afford tuition fees and need their children in the daily struggle to find sustenance. The education system is suffering and the development of the region is in jeopardy.

Niagi says, “Food prices have risen which is a real problem.” Marsabit Boys is a boarding school and the cost of feeding the children has risen dramatically since the latest drought setin. He has refused to pass the increased cost of food on to the parents whose children attend, but now the school is now in debt.

By bearing the financial brunt of feeding the students Niagi is relieving some of the burden on the parents. Many are pastoralists who have lost all of their livestock and means to earn a living. Water is incredibly scarce and they must spend hours at the long queues to access the only two boreholes in the area.

Many of the children in the school are affected psychologically by the drought and its devastating impact on their families, so teachers like Niagi find themselves doing a lot of psychological counselling. But despite his efforts, up to 85% of the children are unable to attend school regularly due to the impacts of drought.

Solomon Gababa, a student at Marsabit Boys School, describes how the school has struggled to cope with the crisis. ‘I have been here for a year and a half and there has been a shortage of water in this school, sometimes we are getting meals with less soup, because we don’t get water. We need water to drink but don’t get it. The food sometimes gets prepared late because the cooks have to go and find water.’

John Burje Galgallo is the head master of another school in Marsabit. He elaborates on the problems schools face when they have no water for the students. ‘Without water you cannot cook for the pupils. Sometimes they visit the toilets and they need to wash their hands, there is no water for this so it brings illnesses, pupils fall sick.’

John and his students have received some assistance from local Tear fund partner Christian Community Services, who have trucked water to schools in the area. Since the water deliveries began, the rate of illnesses contracted by students has decreased.

‘Having water in our tanks helps us to provide the children with a proper meal, clean water for drinking, water for washing the utensils and so on,’ explains John. ‘So this has helped us to ease our work as teachers, the learning and the teaching in the school can go on without much problem.’

Water donations are helping schools in the region to cope with the drought but the underlying issue of climate change remains unchecked. Families are under so much pressure to find water and food that children are increasingly forced to skip school to help out. As things stand, the future of the children across the horn of Africa is at risk.

Source: Tearfund