Teachers have been called upon to step up their
efforts of guiding and counselling as schools reopen to assist students relapse
into learning mood.
The Kakamega county women rep Elsie Muhanda said
teachers were face with a huge task to ensure that all the pupils and students
within the county are comfortably accommodated into the school environment
after being out of class for the last 9 months due to the outbreak of the Covid-
19 pandemic.
The Mp who was on meet the people tour in Kakamega
north sub County( Malava) said a lot needs to be done to readjust the learners
to the basics noting that many had been involved in different non educational
matters.
“Many of our girls and Boys been involved in a lot of
funny things including early pregnancies and marriages, being employed as
housemaids and Bodaboda
operators, herds and Shamba boys among other
employments and now that it is a requirement that they should break away either
by choice or by force to go back to school, many will be undergoing depression
that needs thorough guiding and counselling that should be done by qualified
teachers and other professionals including church elders”.
She said it was
going to be a tough recovery road to the students and if proper measures were
not put in place then most of them would fall back into their earlier
lifestyles.
“The state of our children at this rate is delicately
alarming and they need to be handled with a lot of care for them to accept the
change of the situation from the initial one and we are banking on our teachers
to carry out their mandate effectively.”
She called on the parents to ensure that all the
married, pregnant and young mothers are taken back to school stating that it
was a government directive.
“As you know me I stand up for the girls especially
those that are young mothers and my office has been supporting them across the
county by sponsoring their education and so far we have been successful in the
yester years but currently as you all know the rate of pregnancies at the sub county
has been alarming but we want to ensure that no single girl will be unable to
return to school despite her current situation she might be in.”
She said the empowerment of the girl child will go a
long way in empowering the entire nation hence the need to return them to
class.
Muhanda also called on the parents to take up the
mantle of offering extra guiding and counselling besides explaining to their
children the true situation of their financial status in a situation where some
parents lost their jobs due to the harsh economic crunch caused by the corona
virus disease.
