Schools in Ijara are forced to close due to biting drought, high rate of drop-out and government neglect

IJARA—Schools in parts of Garissa County are on the verge of closure due to biting drought.

Some of the students, particularly girls have dropped out of school to help fetch water for their families at water points far from where the school is located at.

Students of Hulugho Girls Secondary School fetch water from a drying-up water point in Hulugho. Biting drought has seen surge in drop-out rate among girls. PHOTO/ Twitter

“We have visited several schools where headteacher are having difficulty running their schools due to the biting dry spell,” Hassan Ismail, the assessment programme officer for Womenkind Kenya told the Nation at Kotile location after assessing the effect of the drought in the area.

“A number of girls have dropped out school because they are either forced to assist their parents to fetch water, or take care of their homes,” Ismail added.

The orgernisation said both levels of governments—the county and the National government—were not doing enough to mitigate the situation.

“The government has all the machineries to arrest the situation, but it seems that they are waiting the situation to reach emergency level when livestock and human lives will be lost,” Ismail said.

He added that children were dropping out of schools due to the prevailing situation  and that the government was doing less to address the trend.

The National Drought Management Authority said the drought has reached an alarming level at Ijara sub-county in Garissa County since most of the waterpoints have dried up and livestock production has gone down.

Headteachers have been insisting to close schools a month into the opening of the third term due to the unavailability of water to cook food for the students.

“We’re faced with difficulty in low-cost schools because they depend on water tank that are being provided by the county government,which is not enough,” the Ijara sub-county education officer, Robert Mukombe, said.