Day: June 10, 2023

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About 4500 School Children Reported Out Of School Resume

About 4500 school aged children have been taken back to school out of the total of 23,000 school children reported to be out of school in Tana River County.

Tana River County Director of Education Mr. Mwashegwa Mwasaru said through his office, UNICEF and other stakeholders in education reached 4475 children who were out of school and took them back to school.

Mwasaru was responding to a directive by Tana River County Commissioner Mr. Omar Beja who had directed chiefs and assistant chiefs that the 23,000 school aged children should be taken back to school.

Speaking during the National government service delivery Committee meeting held at Hola County Commissioner’s boardroom Mwasaru blamed parents for their failure to take their children to school saying, some parents refused to pay school fees, skipped school meetings and retained their children at home to look after livestock and do farming activities after they are sent home for school fees.

The County Director of Education also identified shortage of teachers as a challenge saying primary schools had a shortage of about 600 teachers while secondary schools needed 240 more.

Mwasaru however said in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE), a total of 84 students got grade C+ and above and they would join universities this year noting that there was an improvement compared to 2021 where only 79 qualified for higher education.

Speaking at the same meeting that was chaired by County Commissioner Beja, Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) Coast Region official Eng. Lewis Maina said the Authority is undertaking the maintenance and safety improvement of Garsen-Hola tarmac road.

He added that the Garsen-Mnazini section’s contract has been issued and was scheduled to start on January 25, 2023 and end on January 24, 2026 at a total sum of Sh446, 653, 791.

Eng. Maina also said that a contract has been issued for the section of the road from Mnazini-Hola to start on January 25, 2023 and end on January 24, 2026 at a total sum of Sh369 million adding that the works have commenced whereby pot holes would be refilled and the most damaged parts of the road re-carpeted.

Source: Kenya News Agency

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Needy Pupils Placed On Sh40 Million Feeding Programme

Pupils from financially challenged backgrounds have a reason to smile after the community development initiatives of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (GNNSJ) officially launched a feeding programme worth Sh40 million to help hundreds of children concentrate in class, boosting their academic performance.

Speaking during the official commissioning of the mega feeding project at Highlands Primary School in Kericho town, Nishkam Group of Charitable Organizations officer Mr. Habal Ahluwalia pointed out that over 200 pupils selected from the school will benefit from the feeding program.

Ahluwalia was pleased to mention that the project also involved the construction of a state of the art dining hall and a modern kitchen at the school for the efficiency and effectiveness of the provision of a balanced diet to the pupils.

He said parents to most of the children in the school were from the marginalized Nubian community, the orphans, the single-parent, those whose parents are imprisoned, and those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

‘These parents can hardly afford a meal per day which is insufficient for the development of their bodies which is essential for them to perform better academically.’ Said Ahluwalia

Ahluwalia further mentioned that the well-wishers’ passion was to see children faring well academically in a conducive and comfortable environment and promised to continue enhancing the project to accommodate more pupils.

‘I am hoping to increase the number of students benefiting from the programme from 200 to 500 in the near future.’ Said Habal Ahluwalia.

Meanwhile, the Kisumu Zone United Nations Children’s Fund Chief Officer Wangui Karanja who also graced the occasion said UNICEF was determined to help children access education, retention, and transition which is essential.

‘We want to make sure that this is an integrated school feeding programme and I call on the county government to chip in by providing support and resources to feed the needy children’ added Wangui.

Also in attendance was the Kericho East Sub County Director Omari Mokaya who welcomed the gesture by the well-wishers in promoting the welfare of the needy pupils.

Source: Kenya News Agency

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Kenya To Take Up The Question Of Insecurity In Lake Victoria To The EAC

Kenya wants the East Africa Community to come up with a solution that will stop persistent harassment of fishermen in Lake Victoria, Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Fisheries and Blue Economy, Salim Mvurya has said.

Mvurya says that already, the cabinet has discussed the question of cross border insecurity that has seen local fishermen suffer persecution at the hands of security agents from neighbouring countries who even detain and confiscate their boats and catch.

The Cabinet Secretary was speaking at Asembo in Rarieda sub county, Siaya when he, together with his ICT and Digital Economy counterpart, Eliud Owalo met beach management unit officials from the Lake Victoria region. The officials were drawn from Busia, Siaya, Kisumu, Homa Bay and Migori counties.

Mvurya said that the government will form a multi-agency team that will help address the matter with neighbouring countries that share the Lake Victoria waters.

He said that his ministry was committed to having fish landing sites turned into the first point of value addition for the catch, adding that plans were underway to construct cooling facilities.

The CS further said that the ministry was working with the ministry of lands to secure title deeds for the landing sites so as to wade off greedy land grabbers.

Addressing the occasion, Owalo said the government will do everything possible to create an enabling environment for the fishermen.

Owalo said that his ministry will establish digital laboratories in all beach units to enable fishermen to get adequate ICT skills.

This, he added, will enable them to market their products on line.

‘The world has changed and you need not interact with your customer physically’ he told the BMU leaders.

Owalo thanked the government for its commitment to spend Sh. 4 billion on construction of Kabonyo fisheries training institute in Kisumu County.

He said that the Blue economy has a lot of potential in the region, adding that within the Nyanza region development plan, it is a stand-alone thematic area that the Kenya Kwanza government wants to enable the fishermen around Lake Victoria to exploit their full potential.

The national chairman of the Beach Management Units, Tom Guda who addressed the meeting lamented that security agents of the neighbouring countries were using flimsy reasons to harass Kenyan fishermen and called for government intervention.

‘Some of their activities are not backed by law’ he said, adding that a number of Kenyan fishermen have been arrested for using solar lamps while on Omena fishing expeditions while others were arrested for allegedly carrying ice boxes to preserve their catch while fishing.

The occasion was also attended by the Siaya county commissioner, Jim Njoka, the chairman of the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) Jack Ranguma and former Kisumu senator, Fred Outa among others.

Source: Kenya News Agency

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Ghana Education Coalition calls for sustainable source of financing basic education?

The Bono Regional Chapter of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has called on the government to find sustainable sources of financing basic education in the country to make it more accessible to children of school-going age.?

According to Mr Kobina Afena-Sam, the Bono Regional Chairman of the Coalition, access to quality basic and formal education remained constitutional provision which and no Ghanaian child should be denied.

Denying school-going age children access to quality education was not only abuse of their human rights, but also an affront to the 1992 constitution, he stated.

Mr Afena-Sam made the call at the Regional Council meeting of the GNECC held in Sunyani.

He expressed worry that many basic schools in the region were still bedeviled with challenges including inadequate physical infrastructure, text books and furniture as well as lack of teachers.

These challenges, he added, were impeding the growth and development of education in the region and also affecting academic performances of school children.

Mr Afena-Sam said the country’s over-reliance on donor, foreign and development partners to financing basic education was unsustainable, hence the need for the government to consider and find resources locally to implement educational programmes.?

Research, he added was key element of facilitating education growth and development, saying the Coalition intended to set up a regional research unit that would conduct vigorous research work into basic education in the region.?

This would well-position the coalition to identify and help tackle the pressing challenges confronting basic education in the region.

‘In fact we are more concern about the welfare of the child. So we need to use the media space and intensify advocacy, raise funds to address the teething challenges impeding the growth of basic education,’ Mr Afena-Sam stated.

Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu, the Bono Regional Coordinator of the GNECC, urged the members to also champion the course of menstrual hygiene at the community level.

He reiterated appeals by the civil society to the government to remove taxes on sanitary pads to make them affordable for girls.?

Mr Ahenu said at the community level, many girls failed to go to school during menstruation, a situation that was lowering the interest of some girls in education.

‘The government must do more and improve sanitary facilities in basic schools so that girls can change and clean themsleves whenever they are in their menstrual periods, ‘ he stated.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Education Coalition appeals to government to increase grants under school feeding programme?

The Bono Regional chapter of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has appealed to the government to increase feeding grants, under the Ghana School Feeding Programme.

The coalition described the current feeding grant of GHC0.97 per child as woefully inadequate, and called for an increment to GhC2.00

At a meeting of the council members of the coalition, held in Sunyani, the members further implored government to address the delays in the release of funds to the caterers.?

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu, the Bono Regional Coordinator of the GNECC, advised the caterers under the programme to increase the nutritional content of meals they prepared for the school children.?

‘We visited one of the beneficiary schools at the community level and the kind of meals the caterers have prepared for these innocent school children were highly unacceptable,’ he stated.?

Mr Simon Asore, a council member of the GNECC in the Bono Region, also said prompt and regular release of the feeding grants would ease the undue pressure on the caterers who had borrowed or credited to cook for these school children.

He was of the view that the feeding grants ought to be increased to GhC3.00 due to the increase in prices of food items in the country.?

Mr Kobina Afena-Sam, the Bono Regional Chairman of the GNECC, said the school feeding programme was a laudable initiative, hence the need to tackle the bottlenecks impeding the programme.?

‘The feeding programme has sustained the interest of many children to go to school,’ he said, and called on the government to consider extending the programme to benefit junior high school?students as well.?

Mr. Afena-Sam said the programme must also be expanded or extended to cover and benefit every public school in deprived areas at the community level.?

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Former President Mulatu addresses Pan-Africanism, Ethiopia’s Peace Agreement in Astana Forum

Former President Mulatu Teshome addressed Pan-Africanism, Ethiopia’s Peace Agreement and climate change issues in the panel discussion held at the sideline of the Astana International Forum.

During the Astana International Forum (AIF 2023), President Mulatu Teshome discussed the importance of promotion of democracy, dialogue, and global cooperation.

Ethiopia has formulated a broad range of national initiatives to combat climate change and address its impacts and launched the Green Legacy Initiative.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched the Green Legacy Initiative in June 2019 with a target of planting 20 billion seedlings.

Over the last four years, 25 billion seedlings, including fruit trees and cattle feeds, have been planted as part of the national Green Legacy Initiative across the nation.

The AIF is a platform for dialogue to address key global challenges. And it was held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from June 8-10/2023 under the theme:Tackling Challenges through Dialogue: Towards Cooperation, Development and Progress.

According to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the event was “unique because it offers a platform for global middle powers to discuss their views and positions on the issues of today and to put forward their own solutions to these issues.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

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