Ministry of Education officials in Uasin Gishu have launched an initiative that seeks to identify at least 800 learners in the county that have not yet joined form one.
County Director of Education Harrison Murioki says despite about 90 percent of the students reporting to their respective schools, some 810 were yet to be accounted for.
Murioki in an interview with Uasin Gishu News said they had partnered with local administration in the mop-up exercise that seeks to ensure all the learners join form one as per the government’s 100 percent transition policy.
Of the learners yet to report, 459 are boys while 351 are girls.
“As of today, 90.56 percent of the boys who did their standard eight national examinations have reported to form one and 89.06 of the girls. In total 89.81 percent of the learners have reported to their respective form one,” Murioki said.
The County Director of Education named Moiben Sub County as the one with the lowest percentage of learners that had reported to school.
While the other five sub-counties in Uasin Gishu have over 90 percent of learners that have reported to schools, Moiben is still at 59 percent.
“I’m told officials there are working hard to improve on the numbers,” said the education official.
He however warned that any parent of a learner yet to report to school will be arrested and charged.
According to Murioki, a parent has no excuse to allow his/her child to remain at home since the government is offering free day secondary school.
“We have agreed with the county commissioner that a parent whose child has not yet reported to school will be arrested. We need 100 percent transition,” said the Uasin Gishu County Director of Education.
“A parent is only required to pay for lunch, which is not mandatory,” he added.
