Schools
Tharaka Nithi County Director of Education (CDE) Bridget Wambua has commended private schools for their dedication in tree planting initiatives and their participation in ecosystem restoration activities.
Speaking during an inspection tour at Achievers High School in Chuka, Ms Wambua noted that private schools in the county had indeed followed the government’s directive in a bid to mitigate the effects of climate change and to achieve the 15 billion trees target by the year 2032.
“My office is on a follow up mission to ascertain that schools are engaged in tree planting and growing exercises as required by the government. I can confirm that schools, including those privately owned have embraced the program and we are on course to attain our target as a county. Private schools have supplemented the exercise and we thank them for their contribution including finding it good to follow guidelines by the government,” she said.
Ms Wambua urged teachers and students to continue planting trees, noting that most schools faced a challenge due to limited space. She asked stakeholders to support the initiative by providing land and asked schools to take advantage of public land in the exercise.
“We have a small challenge with land since most of the schools have limited space. They are free to use public land and other areas as advised by stakeholders to plant and grow trees in line with climate change and environmental conservation,” she said.
Ms Wambua noted that the exercise was continuous and should be embraced by schools especially those with access to water. She further revealed that every teacher has a target to plant and grow 30 trees annually while each student is targeted to plant 4 trees in the same period.
Kenya Private Schools Association Chairperson in Tharaka Nithi County Caroline Muthoni Gitari in her remarks thanked the government for incorporating private education providers in the tree planting exercise, giving a commitment to not only provide quality education but also be champions in environmental conservation.
Mrs Gitari who is also the Director at Achievers High School noted that private schools were engaged in environmental conservation programmes to empower the students and also locals through training.
“We have programmes where we teach the community about the need to conserve the environment. In addition, we invite them in tree planting activities and collaborate with them to combat climate change. Through our Environmental Club, the students are provided with relevant skills so that they can be able to take care of the environment,” she said.
The State Department for Basic Education aims to plant 200 million tree seedlings annually across the 24,000 public primary schools and 9,130 public secondary schools in the country.
