Children to take classes in containers
Children from slums will have their early childhood lessons in containers — not classrooms.
According to Nairobi county’s Department of Education, there is no more land in the slums to put up Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres.
Due to this, the department has proposed to rehabilitate containers measuring 40 feet by 8 feet and convert them into five classrooms for each centre.
The county government wants to put up 80 ECD centres using the containers, according to a proposal by the executive member in charge of Education Mr Christopher Khaemba.
“As opposed to ordinary classes or schools, the containers will cut costs by more than 50 per cent,” said Mr Khaemba.
The details of these container classrooms are in a document Mr Khaemba presented to the County Assembly in response to a motion on construction of two ECD centres in each of Nairobi’s wards.
The motion which was passed by an overwhelming majority had been moved by Sarang’ombe County Representative Pius Otieno.
The containers are preferred despite the authorities setting aside Sh300 million for the construction of the centres across the county this year.
Mr Khaemba, however, expressed frustration with the City engineer who he claimed had failed to furnish the Education Department with drawings for the ECD centres.
“We have notified the City Engineer but so far there has been no response,” he said.
Mr Khaemba said his proposal would address the problem of enrolment in slums because those are the areas with the highest percentage of children who do not go to school.
The majority of Nairobi residents, according to reports, live in slums. Some of the biggest slums are found in Kibera, Mathare, Kawangware, Korogocho and Mukuru.