Kenya: Volunteer teachers cushion Mandera County crisis

Schoolgirls attend a class at Moi Girls Secondary School in Mandera County on February 2, 2015. Local residents are volunteering to fill the gap left by teachers' refusal to report back to schools in Kenya's north-eastern region after al-Shabaab attacks. [Bosire Boniface/Sabahi]

By Bosire Boniface
Thursday, February 5, 2015

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GARISSA – With many teachers refusing to return to Kenya's north-eastern region in the aftermath of brutal al-Shabaab attacks in Mandera County, scores of volunteers have signed up to ensure schools remain open and students continue with their education, officials and teachers said.

Since November 22nd, when al-Shabaab pulled 11 teachers from a bus and killed them, along with 17 other passengers, teachers posted to the county have been demanding to be transferred to safer areas.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers has backed their demands while the Teachers Service Commission, the teachers' employer, has said the safety concerns have been adequately addressed and ordered teachers to return to work.

The ensuing teachers' strike has paralysed public education in Wajir, Mandera and Garissa counties, causing chaos for thousands of children and families.

But now, local volunteers are providing a sliver of hope to students in Mandera County.

The volunteers, who include county government officials, retired teachers, former students, college students and business professionals, have signed up to teach to help mitigate the crisis, Mandera County acting director of education Ismail Barrow told Sabahi.

School administrators are under instruction to take all reasonable steps to keep the schools open and lessons on schedule for the children, Barrow said.

"Desperate situations call for desperate measures," he said. "Schools in other parts of the country are operating normally but we were lagging behind because of the teachers' failure to report back."

Of the 1,406 teachers deployed in Mandera, 607 are from the local community and the rest are external, according to the TSC.

"However, we have gone around and found a local solution to the problem," Barrow said. "It started with a few volunteers and now virtually every school has a volunteer teacher as we try to find a long-term solution to the crisis."

Prospective volunteers must register at the school they wish to work for and have at least finished secondary school in order to be approved to teach, he said.

Kenyan teachers demonstrate outside the parliament building in Nairobi on February 3, 2015. Many teachers posted to Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties have asked to be re-assigned to safer areas. [Simon Maina/AFP]

Volunteer teachers 'a blessing'

The volunteer teachers have been a blessing in this time of crisis but will also provide a bank of temporary teachers to help during future crises, Barrow said.

Mandera Secondary School now has ten volunteer teachers, head teacher Ibrahim Hassan Sheto told Sabahi.

"Of the 15 teachers from outside the region only five reported back," he said. "Before the volunteers signed up, we had seven teachers sharing the school workload."

At Moi Girls Secondary School, just two teachers out of 19 from outside the region reported to their classrooms, said deputy head teacher Mohammed Hillow.

"We had seven teachers [for] 12 classes," he said. "The workload has been lessened by ten volunteers."

Volunteers have been scheduled so they can still attend to their other commitments, he said, and classes have been merged to ensure children can remain in school.

"We sometimes merge classes into one so that large groups of students can be taught and supervised together," he said. "In some classes, we suspend the usual timetable to give a flexible approach to lessons."

Habiba Ali, 26, a former Moi Girls Secondary School student, told Sabahi she volunteered to return to her school to teach out a sense of civic responsibility.

"I have a sentimental attachment to my former school," said Ali, who works as a press officer for Mandera County Governor Ali Roba. "I learned that the school had no English teacher and I volunteered at least an hour every day for the students. I teach two English lessons every day."

Ali said two of her friends were inspired by her volunteer work and decided to follow suit.

"My two friends are on holiday and have volunteered to work, teaching all week in the morning hours," she said.

Mandera Secondary School student Abdikadir Hussein Ahmed, 14, said the volunteers have given students the hope that they will be able to make up for lost time and catch up with schools in the rest of the country.

"We were worried, but at the moment we are fine," he told Sabahi. "Anyone who can impart knowledge to us is welcome. The situation is manageable so far."

Wajir and Garissa seek volunteer teachers

Given the positive response in Mandera County, officials from Wajir and Garissa counties told Sabahi they are reaching out to citizens to initiate a similar programme.

Wajir County's Bodha Primary School head teacher Abdi Rashid Adan said they do not have volunteers at this time.

"If the volunteers come we will welcome them with open arms," he told Sbaahi. "My school has a shortfall of four teachers. The lessons are many and currently I have three teachers who are overwhelmed by 350 students in seven classes."

He said head teachers in Wajir County have proposed the idea of bringing in volunteer teachers to address the teacher crisis.

"The county government administration promised to work on the idea," he said. "If possible, the volunteers will also be trained to address the general shortage of teachers existing in Wajir."

Boys Town Secondary School in Garissa town received six volunteers on Wednesday (February 4th), according to the school's head teacher Abdullahi Osman.

Osman told Sabahi that other schools in the town are processing volunteers' requests to help teach students.

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