Joan Mocho, the acting Principal at Shilalyo Mixed Secondary School in Shinyalu Constituency, Kakamega County has said that the situation is not so rosy at the institution even as students continue with their learning. Mocho, who also doubles as the Deputy Principal said that the school experiences a lack of enough teachers and adequate infrastructure.
He cited a lack of land as the biggest challenge the school is grappling with. “The biggest challenge of Shilalyo Friends Secondary is absence of enough land. The school is squeezed in a small piece of land that denies our students the place to practice co-curricular activities such as PE lessons,” she said.
Regardless of the neighbours willing to vacate, she said that she has postponed several times meeting them due to lack of enough funds to compensate them for their land.
Thanking the MP Fred Ikana for the support in the past, she appealed to the legislator to continue helping the school so that it can have adequate infrastructure for comfortable learning environment.
“I really want to appreciate our MP. He has been at the forefront in assisting the school. But because of the magnitude of our challenges, we still need more help,” she said.
Having come from from Kakamega High which is one of the sports powerhouses in the country, the acting principal would wish to have fields where students can utilise their sporting talents and also put up essential facilities such as labaratories.
Speaking to Education News in her office, she said that the school also lacks a library, Science lab and dining hall and adequate toilets.
However, in last year’s KCSE, two sisters emerged top performers scoring a mean of B minus. “We are delighted about the results, the rest of the students joined to celebrate showing the community that actually the school is transforming the society,” Mocho was quoted as saying.
Mocho also highlighted the shortage of TSC teachers that has impacted negatively on school’s performance.
She reiterated that the employing teachers under Board of Management (BoM) come with financial implications and those recruited finally search for greener pastures in better paying schools.
She added that sometimes they receive bursaries from the area MP and MCA to sustain the school. However, she added that they use lunch levy to pay the BoM teachers resulting to the the school being overstretched.
A spot check by Education News revealed that the school has no kitchen that is well constructed to the expected standards, because there is no land to set up a modern kitchen.
Financial challenges
Mocho also disclosed that majority of parents are not well endowed financially posing a major challenge when it comes to payment of lunch levy.
“Some students due to poverty miss lessons so that they can go and do commercial jobs together with their parents to raise money for food at home and there are so many orphans,” she decried.
“Most of our children are orphans and stay with old grandparents. Whenever there’s a meeting in the school such as AGM, most fail to attend because they can’t walk long distances. Alos, some of our parents know that there is capitation funds but they are are not aware that their are additional costs like meals, uniforms, and school supplies that are required at the school,” she spoke painfully.
She added that the institution has no Physics teacher and since last year, the students have been struggling on their own even 2024 candidates did the subject without a teacher.
“You cannot discourage them from choosing the subject, they will tell you that they will learn on their own,” she stated.
In 2024, nine qualified to the university and 2023 five attained university entry mark.
By Hilda Atika and Joseph Mambili
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