School heads urged to ensure safety of learners

Rachuonyo Thursday 15 June, 2023

KNA By Moseti Julius

Rachuonyo South Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) David Kiprop has asked school heads to put in place strategies to ensure safety and security of learners and school properties.

The DCC said the safety and security of learners in school should be the foremost concern of the school heads and called for partnership through communication by all security stakeholders in the sub county on school safety and security.

Mr Kiprop who was speaking Wednesday during school safety and security meeting held in Agoro Sare mixed secondary school also asked the school heads to urgently come up with a clear roadmap on school safety and security saying it’s better to prevent than to cure a problem.

“We need to be proactive, we need to put in place strategies of preventive nature so that we prevent some security lapses in our schools,” he said.

The DCC directed all school heads to ensure that during the development of school infrastructures, they involved relevant authorities such as the public work officers, public health officers and NEMA to ensure the safety of infrastructures and the learners in schools.

Area sub county director of education Mr. Julius Opondo urged school heads to use the scarce resources in their schools prudently to keep the schools and learners safe, saying security come with managing the little resources that is at the disposal of school heads.

He called on the school heads to use the multiagency approach to handle any safety and security challenges in schools to protect learners and school property.

During the meeting, the school heads from 35 secondary schools in the sub county were taken through the school safety manual 2008, the school safety guideline 2021 and the basic education act which they were asked to strictly adhere to ensure the safety of learners, teachers, support staff and the school infrastructures.

The meeting was attended by the sub county police commander Lillies Wachira, sub county quality assurance officer Mark Ongoncho, sub county DCI David Kirui, sub county TSC director Peter Maritim and Homa Bay county Kuppet secretary general Yogo Stephen who raised concern on the duplication of offices in schools which he said is becoming a security threat in many schools. 

The school heads however also raised concern about the Boda boda enterprise which they said has become a threat to the learners especially the boy child who is dropping out of school to engage in the business.

They called on the relevant authorities to streamline the sector to get school going boys out of the industry.

After the meeting the team agreed as a way forward to create a communication channel for coordination of security issues by frequently sharing of security and safety concerns in schools, and also have a close coordination and partnership on safety and security issues in schools in the sub county.

The meeting also resolved to implement issues discussed in the meeting with immediate effect despite the challenges of scarce resources.

Courtesy ; K. N. A