For years the nomadic children of Kenya have gone without an education, as it was seen as more important for them to look after the family’s livelihood of animals. The Nomadic families way of life meant that they live in the countryside and make their livelihood breeding animals.
It has been complicated and difficult for these nomadic children to get an education, as it would mean taking an entire day travelling to the nearest town and back, or even boarding at one of the towns/city’s schools. This means they would not be able to help in taking care of the families animals.
The Kenyan education office has brought in new measures to ensure that these children are given the chance to have a proper education. Previously the children and their families would have to make the choice of looking after the animals or having a proper education, this is no longer the case.
Recently they have introduced a new way of teaching which allows the local children to come to lessons (in the village) in the early morning, a long break allows them time to attend to the animals, and then they come back to school in the later part of the afternoon.
However this is not a conventional school. Lessons are taught under the shade of a tree, and there is little equipment, and resources. Teaching aids are pinned to tree branches, and the alphabet is often written on the ground using goat droppings or wild fruit.
“Teachers are supposed to be innovative” stated a government official, “the teacher has to use everything in his disposal as teaching aids”.
The new teacher, Mr Farah, is from a nomadic background, so understands the need for a mix of work and education. He is currently teaching a total of 57 students in his class. As part of the nomadic lifestyle, families often move from location to location to avoid the annual drought. To ensure that the children continue their education, the idea is that Mr Farah will travel with them.
Having classes under the shade of a tree does have its difficulties though. “We had more posters (pinned to the trees) up yester day” commented Me Farah “but it rained last night and a few were washed away”. As well as this the African Wildlife is perhaps not so tame as many other countries. “Halfway through the class, one young boy started screaming and clutching his right foot, he was stung by a scorpion and most of them here are poisonous”. Fortunately the boy was treated with traditional medicine, and was back to normal within a few hours.
Do you this that this form of education is enough for the local children? Is it fair to give them a education that is un-resourced, and open to the elements? Is it right to force education on these children, who’s mother and father before them survived with out it? Have your say…
About Tessa Biddulph
Other articles by Tessa Biddulph
Tessa Biddulph works in the marketing department and is new to Bales Worldwide. She is spending a year at Bales Worldwide before heading back to university to complete a PR degree. Tessa’s favourite destination she has travelled to is Sydney, Australia, but since working at Bales she has already drawn up a long list of places she’d like to visit (number 1 being Machu Picchu, in Peru). 