Six out of 100 children in Class 8 in Busia County cannot do class 2 level work, the Uwezo County Learning Assessment Report has revealed. Twaweza official Francis Njuguna said the Uwezo report is a shocking revelation that 6 percent eight pupils could not master Maths, Kiswahili and English while in standard two.
The report for the year ended December 2015 that was officially launched by Busia County Executive Committee member for Education and Vocational Training Hillary Makhulu also revealed that only 26 out of 100 children in Class 3 can do class 2 level work.
Njuguna said a total of 4940 pupils aged between 6 and 16 years in 149 schools they visited sat for standard two Maths, English and Kiswahili papers that came up with the shocking revelations.
The report indicated that 29 out of 100 children sit on the floor compared to 15 out of 100 nationally while one textbook is shared among 3 pupils compared to 2 pupils nationally.
The report revealed that 16 out of 100 pupils were absent from school compared to 12 out of 100 teachers who were not in school when Uwezo team visited.
Makhulu said the startling revelation was attributed to poor parenting, learning environment, books ration and poverty, adding that they will adopt the report to correct any anomalies revealed in the report.
KNUT Busia Branch Executive Secretary Mark Oseno said teachers shortage which currently stands at 3,600 is contributing to the state of affairs, thus the need by all stakeholders to join hands and address challenges facing education sector in the County.
The learning levels in Busia County accounts for 42.7 percent compared to the national average of 47.4%, the report formally launched Deputy Governor Kizito Wangalwa revealed.
The report revealed that half of ECDE centres in Bunyala are supported by the County Government while only two out of 10 ECDE centres in Matayos are supported by the County Government.
The statistics were immediately dismissed by County Education official Nelson Etyang, saying the County Government has supported 37 out of 47 (78%) ECDE centres with 24 out of 39 (60%) supported in Teso North.
It also emerged that there are 12 teachers per school with 10 streams in urban areas and 10 teachers for similar school in rural areas.
On literacy levels, more class 3 girls than boys can read a class 2 level English story and Kiswahili Hadithi. Bunyala sub-county has the highest English literacy levels while Teso North has the highest Kiswahili literacy levels.
The County’s English literacy level among Class 3 children is 3 percent below the national average. On the other hand, Kiswahili literacy level among class 3 children in the county is the same as the national average.
Samia sub-county has the highest number of pupils who sit on the floor while Bunyala and Teso South have the lowest, both at 23%. Five out of 10 girls in the county re-enrolled after pregnancy compared to 4 out of 10 girls nationally.
Uwezo is an initiative of Twaweza East Africa that seeks to improve basic literacy and numeracy through a citizen-driven and public accountability approach to social change.
The seven-year-old organization is active in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda with focus on enabling citizens to exercise agency, prompting governments to be more open and responsive to improve basic learning for children.