Principal Felistas Pauline Okumu Barasa
Headmistress of Bwaliro Girls SS, Busia County Western Province writes from the field about her perspectives on life and education in rural Kenya. She has great empathy for the challenges faced by the girl child. In her role as teacher and principal she succeeds in becoming a role model for her students. As former principal of CES Canada supported Namirama SS for Girls, Felistas Barasa provided love, discipline and support for her students. She is a strong proponent of public education in Kenya and she consistently promotes the work of CES Canada in Kenya.
Principal Felistas Barasa on left with Professor Asenath Sigot (DVC Academics MMUST)
and Principal Madame Everlyne Shinali of Shikoti Girls SS at CES conference in Kakamega
Many African communities have more than often looked down upon the Girl child and despite the public campaign over the same it has fallen on deaf ears.
MY PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION IN RURAL KENYA
Education in the rural Kenya is faced with many challenges ranging from socio economic to cultural stands.
In rural Kenya, many communities have subsistence farming as their main source of income. Subsistence means whatever the people engage in is economically not viable; not viable in that the output is mainly consumed locally and at times calls for a supplement from the neighborhood. Most engage in farming of maize, cassava, millet, groundnuts, green, vegetables, beans and sugarcane, rice, sweet potatoes. Many at times in most homes survive from hand to mouth. They are only able to purchase some bit for one meal per day. To most of them breakfast is rated a luxury and lunch a blessing or luck. The animals kept are mostly indigenous cattle, the zebu whose milk output is very low and indigenous poultry whose egg production is too low. These breeds are preferable as they can survive harsh climatic conditions experienced.
WATER SOURCE
The source of water is streams fetched exclusively by girls and women due to cultural reasons. To some middle – level income earners dug up wells and shallow wells reinforced by water tanks are a source of water.
HOUSING
Houses are mainly grass thatched with mud walls and again to the middle – level income earners semi permanent houses; iron – roofed but still wall mudded
POWER SUPPLY
Electrical power is a luxury, is expensive and most houses do not have a direct line. In fact many schools do not have electrical power. To build the infrastructure and connect a live power line to the school may cost two million KSh of $20,000 Cdn. There are often power shortages and blackouts, especially during the rainstorms. Students cannot afford paraffin or other lamps such as kerosene and solar light panels and therefore are unable to read or do preps after dark. This is a major disadvantage and a hindrance to learning.
CHALLENGES FACES BY THE GIRL CHILD
Most girls in the rural can only afford to go successfully through Std. 8 educational level before dropping out due to pregnancy, early marriages and overall poverty related challenges. HIV /AIDS epidemics has had an adverse impact on family set up leaving a significant number of school going children under the care of mainly grandparents.
Most community’s cultural beliefs have neglected education of girls to the periphery. Last census revealed an imbalance in proportion of girls to boys (63.2%) to (65.6%) respectively in Butula district of province in some communities like Maasai, Samburu, Turkana, Pokot and Kalenjin. Whenever families are pressed with school fees problem, education emphasis is given to boys. For a long time there has been less emphasis on girls’ education. This is demonstrated by the fact that in most communities pure girls’ schools are just a drop in the ocean. For example in Butula district where I head a school at Bwaliro Girls, of nineteen secondary schools only three cater for only girls’ secondary educational. Fifteen of the schools are co-education secondary schools with only one as an only boys’ secondary education. This is also confirmed by the fact that while boys continue to perform well and proceed to the University and tertiary colleges, girls hardly do so. This trend has been a significant contributor to diminished girl education in most rural areas.
THE GIRL CHILD STILL FACES WIDESPREAD DISCRIMINATION
As we continue to grapple with the constitution requirement that not more than two thirds of members of elective public bodies shall be of the same gender, communities from the arid and semi areas have a bigger challenge. The Maasai, Samburu, Turkana, Pokot and even the Kalenjin communities have all along marginalized their woman and this now obscures all the gains that the constitution may have put in place.
Scenarios have emerged where woman have been marginalized and this heralds the danger that these areas may not enjoy the full gender benefits as articulated by the new Constitution. The challenges per se may underline what the country may face with the dispensation of the new Constitution, but these communities require special mention.
It is against this background that the challenges will directly fall on leaders and other players as they rush to ensure that woman are in the right place to manage public affairs by creating the right opportunities to address the bottlenecks that create hurdles to their development.
It is a fact that the traditions and culture that thrive in these communities have contributed to the current debacle where women are rated second citizens.
GENITAL MUTILATION
This phenomenon has led to the persecution of the girl child, who is no longer regarded as part of the community and least attention is given to her, including access to the basic education. These girls suffer at a tender age as they are subjected to female mutilation before they are married off. The campaign by the Government to ban FGM has not yielded much success.
According to some communities, girls are considered not members of the family and there is, therefore, no need to invest in them. Consequently, they are neglected and denied basic rights and privileges their counterparts enjoy – such as education, medical care, love and compassion.
Parents encourage such acts since they are the beneficiaries of the dowry. This is one area where national and local governments should be in the forefront in ensuring that culprits are taken to court. These archaic practices should be wiped out if women and the girl child career development is to be part of the 21st century development and beyond.
In these communities it has been documented that the number of girls advance at a high rate as they climb the academic ladder. There is need therefore, to ensure equal access to education, eliminate negative culture attitude and preach against discrimination of girls.
Other avenues to be addressed should be the promotion of rights for the girl child along with measures to increase the awareness of her needs and potential. Role models from different communities should start a concerted campaign to change attitudes toward girls. Policies that ensure that the girl child is protected should be established and adhered to with clarity and consistency for the sake of posterity.
According to official research any indicator in development is measured by whether there is growth in participation of women in any career development. Tanzania and South Africa lead in terms of women performing, since women account for 40 per cent of all researchers in those two countries. The next highest percentage of women in research is found in Mozambique and Uganda.
MY STORY of PRIVILEGE and BLESSING
I was a deputy headmistress at a co-educational school at St. Antony Kakoyi in Kakamega, north of Kakamega County, Western province. I held this position for three solid years from September 2005 to September 2008. During this period I supported the Girl Child Education more than the boy in this set – up. One of the responsibilities was to monitor free payments and issue meal cards to the students who had fully paid up or partially done so. Many of our parents here like those other rural communities had a tendency of laying greater emphasis on the male students at the expense of he female one. One goal achieved while I served in this Kabras community of the Luhya sub-tribe was of educating many parents on the need to give an equal opportunity to both the girl and the boy. God really helped me and during my regime a parent who had a boy and a girl student in the school tried showing bias. I really worked on his or her psychology and if she/he never saw sense I would not re – admit the boy student in the school until the parent paid fees for the girl student too. I would use myself as a living role model whose great and focused father had love for all nine children (three boys and six girls) whom God had entrusted him to bring up on his behalf (God). I would proudly call myself as my parents BARCLAYS BANK (an international Bank) because as a teacher of French I felt international and not local, thus a Barclays investment /saving for my parents.
I recall vividly how I would walk into a constituency Bursary fund office in Malava where the school is situated and convince the office bearers to assist my needy students in the schools. Guess right – I would push for a 75%:25% assistance Girl : Boy , why not? This more made me popular among my parents who after three years of my working began proposing that I be elevated to a principal status but in only in a girl set up. I guess these parents did so because they felt I had handled them firmly on this matter and never even blinked an eye. Occasionally we held talks with female teachers to address them on the issue of female awareness. I myself talked on parade. I would often speak about ‘Woman Empowerment in Kenya’. I encouraged many girls to compete with their counterparts favorably and in the year 2007, in F3 class nine girls emerged position 1-10 (one boy was position 4 and position 9, a boy tied with a girl and the remaining positions were held by girls). In essence from a total of 11 students my girls’ scooped nine positions.
During a recent day long mathematics contest in the school most of the prizes were scooped by my girls. I immediately send a text message to the principal (Male) saying “My girls have won the day; you’d better psyche your boys”. The following day on a Friday I addressed my male colleagues to do some empowering or else the school was at the verge of turning into an only girls’ one. In the year 2008, at the release of KCSE results, the school had improved tremendously from a mean score of 3.81 to 4.90. Guess for your self, the top student was a girl with a B+ and today this girl is pursuing here degree course in Kenyatta University the most expanding University and the university where I also took my first degree in special education (B.ED, FRENCH / GEOGRAPHY 1987 – 1990). Most girls did well and many are doing quite a range of jobs within that particular community.
When I joined the school community, cases of pregnancy were rampant and boy – girl relationship were the order of the day. I recall my first day the principal telling me to be careful in such a set-up because a correction of a boy could injure a girl somewhere meaning their was some inbreeding. I want to thank my God because He enabled me to root out this vice among the students. One common announcement I made on parade was “I FOUND YOU FEEDING ON MY DAUGHTER OR MAKING A MOVE AND YOU WLL BRING FOR ME COWS ON PARADE IN COMPENSATION”. This statement scared the boys because I am naturally an eloquent and firm speaker. On the other hand it gave the girl child a lot of hope and the assurance of completing the four year course. This kind of motherly protection earned me popularity among the parents’ and many would bring me spectacular gifts and foodstuffs for my weekend in Kakamega and some funds in the form of fare as I commuted for a stretch of approximately 25Km from Kakamega town daily.
MY NEW CANADIAN FAMILY
The good care and support for the girl child here saw the principal Education Officer give me a chance to head Namirama Girls Secondary School. This school is on of the CES sponsored schools and that is how I got an opening to become part of the CES family of schools. The great umbrella came when my family hosted two Canadian volunteers to Kenya (Nicole and Sarah). I am a mother of two sons, Bramwel Ushindi Barasa and Prince Daniel Simiyu Barasa. When the CES volunteers came, we became a family of six, Mr. and Mrs. Barasa Wandati, two daughters, Nicole Nuk and Sarah Michalowicz and of course our two sons who quickly aligned themselves with their two Canadian sisters. Naturally my son Bramwel is calm so he became the brother of calm Sarah and cousin to Nicole. They are both scientifically oriented while my younger son Prince is aggressive like Nicole and very adventurous. As a family of six we enjoyed life together in Namirama for one and a half months of mama, papa, two daughters and two sons. We moved as a team to our Sunday service in the school and occasionally to the church in Kakamega town where the family worshiped at the World Impact Centre under Service International ministry. The moments I enjoyed most was when my two daughters came in the evening from their volunteer errands in the CES sponsored Schools in Navakholo District, Kakamega county and passed via my office to greet me before going to rest in their house. Whenever I would retire to the principal house I would call them saying, Nicole, Sarah your mother is back come suckle” Among other jokes I would imitate Nicole’s introduction for both of them whenever we met a new audience “My name is Nicole and her name is Sarah, we have come all the way from Canada” of course with a Canadian accent. This phrase became a household song in our house – in Namirama.
The two volunteers did much in the CES sponsored schools and changed the attitude of the rural children. This was evident because every school they went they brought home a gift for themselves. As they were leaving Namirama for Shikoti girls school they left some of these gifts with my sons. They changed the mood in the school and gave the CES girls’ in the school a great sense of belonging. CES has tremendously uplifted the lives of many rural girls who otherwise would have been neglected due to poverty or lack of parenthood due to the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Many sponsored students feel happy, loved and blessed to have the CES organization as their parents. CES Kenya brings them together for learning workshops and on such occasions they gift them and give them a treat to a special meal. In addition CES ensures that the students they sponsor are well taken care of in terms of a healthy environment, medication, sanitary towels, anti-malaria treated nets. CES students are never sent away from their schools for lack of fees; and as a result, they pursue their studies uninterrupted. CES Kenya is very prompt in paying their fee which they do in form of cheques. CES also ensures that the school administration provides sponsored students with school uniforms.
One of the memories I will never forget was my encounter with the CES President FREDERIKSEN, “A very jovial and God made Leader”. This was the day we were celebrating a CES day in Namirama Girls and all the CES students in the neighboring schools convened here and we had a very wonderful day together. It was like a little heaven had dropped in on the school. I appreciated the CES team because it was as if that was my farewell from Namirama SS. Immediately after the function ended, it generated a mixture of reactions. Some people misinterpreted the function to mean I had won a Canadian scholarship. Some thought the CES President had left some good money for me. All in all, I thank God because I regained my life just like Queen Esther in the Bible. I don’t regret it because CES summarized my reign in Namirama and gave me a second chance to run a different race.
HAPPY THOUGHTS
It was in the year 2000 when I was offered a scholarship o the University of Montpellier, In Southern France to pursue a course in French. I learned to love the French language and have so much enjoyed teaching it since that time. In August 2011 a group of Kenyan principals visited Toronto Canada for an international learning conference. While attending a function sponsored by CES Canada one of the principals noticed my portrait, a photo with five of my CES students from Namirama. Upon her return to Kenya she saw me at a bank in Kakamega and she told me she had seen a beautiful portrait.
“I saw your photo with your students in Canada. It is a very big portrait and you passed so well… is nice…Eh”. Guess what I felt – I felt happy and proud. It felt so nice. It isn’t really an honour when another person does not appreciate my work in that school. The real honour is when another taller person appreciated and cared for me through photographs sent overseas to Canada. Long live CES! Long live Canada! Vive le CANADA!
The writer is a high school teacher:
The Principal Bwaliro Girls Sec School,
Butula District, Busia County
Western Province of Kenya
