Had it not been for the children’s chattering, from a distance, you may think that you are heading to a cattle shed.
The non-descript structure housing Budalangi Nursery School sticks like a sore thumb as it is totally out of place with today’s development in the education sector.
The nursery school in Soy Ward within Soy Constituency has 70 pupils who, every morning, have to go there as they seek education.
Small, muddy and decrepit, the only classroom has three teachers who have to take care of the different needs each pupil has.
School chairman John Kutoto says that the children, due to the dilapidated facilities, face harsh conditions such as rain and windy weather conditions. This allegedly affects their performance.
In addition, the children come from poor backgrounds and most will come to school hungry.
“These children lack basic needs such as shelter, food and clothing since majority of their parents are jobless. Most of them don’t have most basic necessities and even affording a meal a day is hard,” says Kutoto.
He says that these challenges make it hard for the school to ask for school fees which makes running the school even harder.
Kutoto says that the school is in dire need of classrooms, desks, learning materials, teachers and at least a feeding programme for the less fortunate.
“It’s hard for one to be attentive in class if they are hungry. In addition, lack of learning materials such as blackboards and books makes it hard for the teachers to perform their duties effectively,” he said.
Area member of county assembly Isaac Chirchir has said that the county government has started to build two ultra-modern classrooms at a cost of two million shillings and the project is expected to be fully completed by September 2015.
“I am aware of the situation of the school and I will work tirelessly to make sure that the classes are completed as soon as possible. We will equip them fully with desks and required learning materials,” he assured.
He added, “Concerning the teachers, the county government has given us one teacher who will be reporting soon and learning will be normalised,” he said.