KAMUCHEGE SCHOOL, KENYA

Kamuchege School is situated about 1½ hours drive from Nairobi. It is a state school to which the government of Kenya should be contributing the equivalent to €9 per child per year, however, this money rarely gets to the school.  To give you an idea as to how much this represents, we in Gibraltar have a capita per child of £84 or €92 which is more than ten times that of a child in Kenya. 

The School has 408 children in 12 classes and 13 teachers.  The teachers are paid around €135 per month for those on the government payroll and about €63 per month for those teachers funded privately by the parents.

All parents are required to pay for school books and all the other materials the children need for their lessons.  However, because most parents are subsistence farmers or peasants they are unable to afford to pay these costs and therefore the children are forced to simply go without.    

The school has no mains electricity supply except in two or three classrooms where there are just light bulbs powered through an extension lead provided to the school by a neighbour! 

Steven (project coordinator) took the opportunity to visit the school whilst attending a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Plenary Conference in Nairobi.  He was moved by the plight of the school and by the positive attitude of the teachers and pupils despite the hardships they faced. As a former teacher and one who represented the teaching profession for many years he was able to compare the appalling conditions the teachers at the Kamuchege School work under to the schools in Gibraltar. 

What he found significant was the fact that people there just get on with life. The teachers attempt to utilise whatever life skills they possess and to make the best out of virtually nothing. The school books are very old, the children’s uniforms are invariably ragged and dirty, there is mud and dust all over the place and when it rains the school becomes impossible to attend. Yet both teachers and pupils carry on as best they can in their usual friendly manner.

Steven Linares is the project coordinator for the Kamuchege School Project in Kenya. He was a teacher at the Bishop Fitzgerald School (Gibraltar) for nearly 12 years following when he decided to stand for election and was fortunate to become a member of the Gibraltar House of Assembly (now called “The House of Parliament”).