Renowned educationists in Kisii County have lauded the speech by the President of the United States of America Barrack Obama on the importance of educating the girl child.
Pauline Ongaga, senior lecturer at Kisii University said educating a girl child is like educating the whole society, and she thanked the president for giving such a powerful speech on the girl child.
Speaking during an interview at Kisii University, Ongaga said in response to Obama’s call, the government in collaboration with the US should pump more funds into the education sector.
She said that regions like Mt. Elgon, Turkana and Samburu should be given first priority due to the difficulty in such regions.
Ongaga added that according to a baseline assessment survey on girl child, intervention in selected districts conducted by the United Nations showed that about 60 per cent of the girls in most parts of the country do not go beyond class eight, which is alarming.
She called upon all stake holders to work hand in hand with the government agency to reduce it to zero percent.
“This will only work if all stakeholders are brought on board to deliberate about the girl child education,” she said.
She dismissed cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), though she noted that this has reduced drastically in the region.
“This follows efforts to curb the vice by security agents together with the interior and coordination officer,” she noted.