He introduces his three other colleagues: “Mr Korir is our only upper primary school teacher. Occasionally he has to teach all 5 classes by himself. Just yesterday, we were joined by Mr Chizupo who is now volunteering with us. Ms Jelimo is our Class 2 teacher, but she also teaches other classes. We all take it in turns to pop into Class 3 to ensure that they are doing something” Mr Kitur explains.
As the only upper primary school teacher, Mr Korir explains how he usually manages his day. “I usually start with Class 8 because the examination is coming soon. Whenever we are doing revisions, I bring in Class 6 and 7 to listen. Then I move them back to their classes and give them some work to do, as I quickly cross over to Class 5. The other teachers help me sometimes to attend to Class 4, but I always keep them in sight so that they don’t get lost”.
During the afternoon, the lower primary teachers teach in upper primary, so afternoon lessons are always better attended. We quickly make our offer to rush with Mr Korir to teach upper primary and help out. He quickly unveils the teaching materials for the different classes. From our team, we assign Vivian to Class 8 to teach English; John takes Social Studies in Class 4, while Sandra rushes off for Kiswahili in Standard 5. Mr Korir proceeds to Class 7 and Mr Chizupo to Class 6. For the first time in a long time, all classes (with the exception of Class 3) have a teacher, and the school falls quiet.
In Class four, John teaches a lesson on ‘Citizenship’. The little children cannot understand English, have never heard the word ‘citizen’, and have never watched TV (In Kenya, one of the major television channels is called ‘Citizen TV’). They are not sure whether Kenya is a country or a county, and they think Turkana and Samburu are neighbouring countries. They have never come across such words as Uganda and Tanzania. One little child suggests that America might be in Africa.
Only one 1 of these 10 pupils has seen the Kenyan National Identity Card before. The Citizenship lesson quickly changes into a language and geography class, for the children to first appreciate what a country is, and construct sentences about being citizens of different countries in Africa. They are given homework, to ask their parents to show them their National Identity Cards, and discuss with them the roles of a citizen.
Later on, we meet some members of the local community to speak with them on the subject of teachers and learning. One person observed: “We had 66 children absent from school today (41% of the total number enrolled) because there are no teachers. Some children have moved to other schools, while others say they prefer staying at home because they learn too little”.
Mr Korir tells us “Every month, [the teachers] make a schedule of which teacher needs to travel [to collect their salary from the nearest bank] and when. There are no means of transport here, so it may take you two days hopping on lorries or waiting for military transport. By the time you get there and back, a week is gone, and then the next teacher is scheduled to travel”. “Female teachers suffer most, climbing on top of Lorries with young babies. You can sometimes wait for a lorry until 1.00 am, and not even end up reaching your destination. Insecurity is sometimes a problem especially when you come through the Marakwet route”.
Looking at the situation, it’s tough to retain teachers in this environment. A glimmer of hope shines in the distance for East Pokot as the Chemolingot-Barpello road is being constructed, which will contribute to the growing effort to “ensure that we have good roads connecting all our schools in the county” says the Governor of Baringo County, Hon Cheboi. Perhaps this may contribute to making life easier for Mr Korir and other teachers like him in East Pokot.
“When you meet someone big in government, please ask them to bring us more teachers. They seem to have forgotten us, and year-in-year-out we live on mere promises” are Mr Korir’s last words to us. He is hopeful that someone will come to his rescue, soon. As we walk home though, we feel greatly inspired by the enthusiasm and dedication of these teachers, touched by their selfless missionary attitude, and think to ourselves: ‘If only every teacher could serve this way’. Even then, someone must come to the help of this public servant!
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