The Untold truths about Kakuma Refugee Camp: The state of secondary school education.
On February 12th, 2018, secondary schools in Kakuma Refugee Camp were shut down after Windle Trust Kenya (WTK), the NGO in charge of implementing the secondary school education in the camp, through its school officials, announced that learners should pay a school fee of Ksh 1000 (equivalent to $10) per term (semester) in order to continue learning. The school officials blamed the fee introduction on the shortage of donor funding. In protest to this shocking news, students peacefully walked out of schools. However, the atmosphere was tense in Green Light Secondary School (one of the four secondary schools in the camp) after the deputy principal, Robert Bett, made the announcement. Green Light Secondary students attempted to organize a strike against the announcement which they immediately abandoned and left the school without harming anyone contrary to some news report.
The image on the left shows students leaving Green Light Secondary School shortly after the announcement was made.
WTK is highly regarded for transforming secondary school education in the camp. When it took over management of the schools from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in 2015, WTK completely changed how schools were run. First, it expanded the time that students spent in schools by providing meals at lunchtime. In addition, the organization hired new teachers who were competent and qualified to meet the needs of the refugee students. This move was widely celebrated as more students profited from this initiative as a tremendous improvement was registered in student performances in the national exams over those years. However, at the beginning of 2017, the available spots in schools were not enough to meet the needs of the influx of students who graduated from primary school in 2016. This forced the organization to adopt a two-in-one school system that allowed students to come in two shifts: morning and afternoon. Even though this strategy had negative effects on students’ performances, it was lauded since it maximized the number of students attending school.
So, if WTK has a reputation for being a trans-formative organization, how then did the organization decide to shut the schools down? To provide answers to this question, let’s look at the genesis of the problem. The idea of paying school fees was first adopted by LWF, the organization in charge of the primary schools, in January this year. However, parents responded by shutting down the schools. In less than a week, the primary schools were reopened. At about the same time, WTK fired the teachers originating from the host ethnic community: Turkana. No official explanation was made about why they were fired. This was followed by the removal of Agriculture, Physics, Business Studies, and Geography from the curriculum among the lower classes. Before the omission, students were taking only nine subjects out of the possible eleven. After the omission, some students were taking as few as six subjects, one subject short of the required minimum of seven subjects in the national exam. A few days later, the school fees were introduced. The question is: why has the organization not made an official statement on this new state of affairs as about five thousand students remain out of school?
Some refugees think it is true that there is a shortage of donor funding but others think there are better solutions to solve the problem. For instance, the funds used to provide lunch could be used to employ teachers and revert to the half-day system of learning as it was prior to 2015. Others think it would be better to reduce the number of national staff since the salary of one national teacher can be used to pay about seven incentive (refugee) teachers. Contrary to this, other refugees believe this is a concocted story to cover some unknown interests of school officials. Although those may be disregarded as unfounded claims, one can never really know until the UNHCR or WTK’s high ranking officials in Kakuma or Nairobi make an official statement.
Below are the excerpts of a few students’ posts on Facebook to express their opinions regarding the closure of schools.
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Joseph Gai, “The only reason why we are here is because of education. If we cannot continue learning, then we will have to go other places to look for education.”
Pual Deng, “I want to go back to school, but I can’t because of the the introduction of schools fees. Our future is in jeopardy. May Almighty Father make a way for us.s”
Isaaco Akoldit, “What is happening here in Kakuma is harmful to our future… but Almighty give us his guidance.”
From their views, it is clear that even though they fled their countries and sought protection of the UNHCR, their hope is grounded in education Education is the most powerful weapon at our disposal to empower refugees. I believe that if we can spread the news about the closure of schools in Kakuma, then we can help those learners return to school. Many thanks to Kakuma News, the only news outlet reporting the matter, even though they have a small audience. Here is what they posted on their twitter wall.
Kakuma News @KakumaNews Feb 11
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#Kakuma Sec School & Green Light Sec school have gone on strike after the school asked them to pay KES 3K annually. It’s alleged that teachers at Green Light were assaulted by the striking students.
To clear the air about Kakuma News’ report, no single teacher was assaulted at Green Light Secondary School. While many students cannot afford the fee, it is reported that a few students in form one are paying and the schools might reopen next week. However, the majority cannot afford that fee and thus only a few hundred will attend classes when schools reopen. So far, the plea of the students is to go back to school and continue learning.
By reporting this news, my hope is that through sharing the pain of the refugee students, their plea can be heard and that they can go back to school. I plead with you to not only read this message but also share with others and if possible, do something to help them go back to school.
On this note, I would like to end with a quote from Anthony Douglass Williams. “It is our duty to love the unloved, help the helpless, and bring hope to the hopeless.”