Hear me out
The future of education from a child's perspective
I would start by asking the Government if they are serious about the future of our pupils. Most of the pupils come from slums they look forward to coming to school so that they change their way of life. For them to be able to change it the Government has to be involved. For example, in a public school, there are over seventy pupils in a classroom. The teachers are not even that interested, all they do is go into the classroom and are not even bothered if the learners are cooperating or not. As long as they get paid.
Also, many public schools in Kenya suffer from a lack of funding and a shortage of highly qualified teaching staff. Most parents hope to have the money to take their children to private schools because of the greater flexibility in the choice of curriculum. I would say the Government to produce more funds to help the schools to build new classrooms, allocate new teachers and ensure that the schools are actually a clean environment and have good surroundings to help the children.
Moreover, we have to help the street children. Street children in Nairobi are easily recognized with their trademark, searching dustbins. They are branded with the name scavengers. In order to survive the streets, young people often beg, carry luggage, or clean vehicles. The Government needs to take part in helping these children out. Some kids are supposed to be in school learning about nouns or areas of shapes instead, they are begging on the streets. These children need homes and basic needs like food and clothes.
My approach is that the Government tries to provide for these children the basic stuff first and then others can come later. More often than not these children get caught stealing just because they have not eaten for more than two days or more.
The Government is expected to play a critical role in the allocation and utilization of the funds, both at the national and devolved units. Our children rights are pretty taken care of. The Government has been strict on our rights as children. Also, you should try to help the children who live in dry areas like Mandera and Turkana. You should provide money to build dams that can help with domestic uses at home.
I would also like to address the situation about sanitary towels for girls. Some parts of Kenya like poor counties have a hard time providing the pupils or our children with sanitary towels so it will be a good idea for the Government to provide a program that will help these girls out. The reason this needs to be done is to make sure these girls stay in school. Most girls with the problem of having sanitary towels stay at home when they get their menstrual cycle. They miss school and lessons which leads to poor performance for these learners.
The Government also needs to take part in maintaining security, especially for our girls. Nowadays girls are exploited and abused. They are raped or badly abused maybe at home or even in school. Also, the issue of female genital mutilation should be looked into. It destroys these girls’ lives forever.
I hope you will consider what I have written down. It is important to consider the future of our pupils and take part in helping them achieve their goals.
By 13-year old, Sakina Uba
