Education stakeholders, teachers and political leaders met on Monday May 20, 2024 in Merti town, Isiolo County to address the challenges of reopening schools that were affected by floods.

Merti Sub County was one of the hard-hit areas by the recent floods after River Ewasongiro burst its banks flooding the schools, homes and destroying other crucial infrastructure like boreholes.

According to a report presented during the meeting, seven schools are yet to reopen after infrastructure was damaged by floods.

Some of the schools have now been directed by the Ministry to merge pupils and students as a way of preventing learners from missing lessons.

According to Ismail Huka, the schools remained closed due to lack of proper sanitation.

Huka said that in the affected schools, floods destroyed the sanitation blocks which left them inhabitable for learners, a situation he explained has been addressed to the Ministry.

He added that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has also addressed the issue of learning materials that were destroyed by floods. 

Political leaders led by Woman member of parliament Mumina Bonaya who attended the meeting said they would support the schools to restart but also called for special interventions from State and non-State actors.

Ahmed Husein, headteacher of Khalifa Abubakar school said that ten pit latrines were completely destroyed at the school.

He said they had arrangements to deploy pupils from grade one to grade six to Merti Muslim, while grade seven and eight at a different school.

Boru Guno said that eight blocks of latrine were submerged and offices were flooded with water.

Textbooks and other learning materials were also destroyed in some of the affected schools in Isiolo.

Written by George Kobia