Post: Ministry Targets 374 Dropouts for School Reentry This Term

Turkana County: The Ministry of Education is committed to ensuring that all school-going children report to school for the second term starting from Monday, a team of education officers has said. Speaking in Kakuma and Kalobeyei refugee camps in Turkana County after conducting a one-week mop-up exercise, the officers lamented that there are many learners who have dropped out of school in the refugee camps.According to Kenya News Agency, led by the County Director of Education, Dr. Henry Lubanga, the team discovered that 374 Elimu scholarship learners are out of school because of various challenges citing teenage pregnancies, early marriages, truancy, and resettlements in other counties. Dr. Lubanga said the learners in the camps face many challenges but insisted that the challenges could not be an excuse to let the learners drop out of school. He said he will mobilize all learners in the county to be in school within two weeks' time.At the same time, the National Coordinator of Kenya Primary Education Equ ity in Learning Programme (KPEEL), Martha Ekirapa, confirmed that out of the 374 Elimu scholars, 330 are from Equity Group Foundation while 44 are from Jomo Kenyatta Foundation, who are the scholarship implementing partners. Ekirapa affirmed that the government will spare no effort in tracing the learners and sending them back to school as learning in term two kicks off. She dismissed some of the challenges causing disruption of learning for the students as mere excuses that are not supported by the ministry's regulations and guidelines.Ekirapa further outlined several interventions that the Ministry of Education has put in place to counter some of the challenges. For pregnancy cases, she confirmed all learners who got pregnant can be in school until the time of delivery and they can also resume learning soon after as per the Ministry of Education learner's re-entry policy. She declared, 'Therefore, pregnancy should not be used as an excuse for dropping out of school.' Ekirapa urged the learners to make use of their time in school, saying the government is investing in their future through education.