Education
Seven schools that were affected by floods in Merti Sub-County, Isiolo County last week have remained closed as the stakeholders plans to re-open them soon.
Education stakeholders including teachers, school sponsors, political leaders, the national and county governments officials held meetings in Merti town to discuss how to tackle the infrastructural challenges facing the schools before re-opening.
Merti Sub -County was hard-hit by the recent floods after River Ewasonyiro burst its banks and floods destroyed the schools, homes and crucial infrastructure including boreholes. Among the strategies to put in place include having some schools temporarily merged so that learners do not miss lessons for a long time.
Political leaders led by Women Rep Mumina Bonaya called for quick interventions from state and the non-state actors so that the schools could be rehabilitated, and the learners resume learning as soon as possible. According to the head teacher of Khalifa Primary school Mr. Ahmed Husein, 10 pit latrines had been destroyed and the learning institution was in dire need of new toilets before re-opening.
He also said that arrangements to deploy pupils from nearby schools to Merti Muslim girls, was welcome but the stakeholders should move with speed to alleviate congestion that could lead to contracting of diseases among the learners.
Another head teacher Mr. Boru Guno said that eight blocks of latrine at Merti South Girls primary school have been submerged and offices are flooded. Text books and other learning materials were also destroyed. He said that many schools had sanitation blocks destroyed which could endanger the learners and appealed to the Ministry of Education to expedite the rehabilitation through the disaster fund recently set aside by the government.
He said that the Education Ministry must also address the issue of learning materials that were destroyed.