The essence of taking children to school is to acquire skills and knowledge to help them in shaping their lives and have something to live for.
Thus, material assistance and guidance is essential to these young, growing and potential minds. And this is the core aim and objective of schools.
In the recent past, there has been a challenge in meeting school objectives since majority of children attending school have not been learning since what is expected from them is not being achieved.
From 2011 Uwezo reports, there was a decline of children aged 7 and 13 with ability to read a class 2 story and solve a class 2 division. From the expectations, this is a worrying fact and has been affecting the ability of pupils to perform in KCPE Examinations.
A child’s background is a major challenge since children from less privileged households are left out in terms of school attendance and progress, according to a 2014 Uwezo report. This is because they have a limitation accessing necessary materials and even less concerned parents and guardians don’t offer required guidance to them.
Usually, as they sit for the KCPE examinations, they are not adequately equipped to produce good results.
Also children from some regions e.g. arid and semi- arid areas like North Eastern, are less privileged compared with regions like Nairobi, since many children aged 7 in class one were not able to read letters compared to those in Nairobi, thus the deviation in KCPE results from these regions is very high.
By Abel Guantai Kiruja
(Meru County)