Education stakeholders in Garissa County have been challenged to urgently address the falling standards of education in the area.
The coordinator of Upendo Wetu Initiative, Ms Zainab Mohamed asked the various stakeholders in the county to analyse what was ailing the education sector to seek solution.
Speaking during the launch of the Uwezo County report on learning assessment, Ms Zainab said lack of proper cooperation between the teachers, parents and the students was to blame for the poor standards.
The coordinator further said lack of enough teaches has adversely affected the education sector in the region after non-local teachers left following the Garissa University terror attack that left 148 people dead.
“In the report, the teacher-student ratio is below the national average. The situation has been aggravated further by the mass exodus of non-local teachers following the Garissa university terror attack,” she said.
“We cannot apportion blame because it is not going to take us anywhere. The best way is for all of us to play our roles effectively in as far as education is concerned,” she added.
Zainab added that pupils in public schools were the worst affected because they lacked the basic foundation of education because they don’t go through Early Childhood development (ECD).
She noted that a standard 8 pupil who was expected to seat for the national examination at the end of the year could barely tackle an exam meant for a class two pupil.
The research was done in 2015 in all the 7 sub-counties of Garissa with the sole purpose of finding out the impact of free primary education following huge financial investment by the national government.