A teacher in class with her pupils at Tunza Children Centre. [PHOTO/Standard]
The prospect of teaching at a Kibera slum schools comes with its own challenges.
For instance, it is not such an impossibility for a pupil to come to class with a gun or bag of weed.
The learners even have the courage to engage in sexual activities within the school compound.
It is not a secret anymore; alcohol and sex are cheaper than basics like food and shelter.
To teach in a Kibera school, a teacher has to be braced with meeting students from the lowest economic class.
Sometimes it will be difficult for learners to acquire basic learning materials like books and pens and it becomes the role of the teacher to either help in the purchase or improvisation of locally available material to suit the learner.
Sometimes it becomes difficult to instill discipline in the students because you are never sure whom you are dealing with.
Some of the students in your class are the same people who spend the night breaking into houses and pulling the trigger on 'troublesome' victims; how do you punish them at school, therefore?
By the age of ten, a good number of those in your class are already engaging in sexual activities. Some are even doing it as part of the family's business, especially girls.
The teacher's role in the slum therefore goes beyond that of other teachers elsewhere. You become a real parent out to instill the right knowledge, skills and attitudes in the learner in the best way possible considering individual differences.