Learning in condemned, overcrowded classrooms

A school in the National Capital District has been forced to provide teaching and learning in a condemned classroom building as  the school faces critical shortage of classrooms to cater for the increasing number of students  flooding in since 2023.

Head teacher of New Erima Primary School, Yalu Kipungi told NBC News, the school has been experiencing this for the last three years since the transition of primary into high school under the 1-6-6 school structure.

With massive student population and less infrastructure, grade 7 students are forced to learn in a classroom building that was condemned by Health inspectors.

According to Mr. Kipungi the building is not fit for teaching and learning to take place, but the school has no option.

Not only students are put in health risk classrooms but some are also forced to sit on the floor to learn as desk and chairs are also in shortage due to overcrowding.

In one of the grade 4 classrooms, more than a 100-students are catered with two teachers.

Mr. Kipungi says some of the classrooms were given to junior high and as a result grade 4 students were without classrooms, so they had to turn a hall into classrooms by building partitions.

The Head of New Erima Primary says the school is in critical need of new classroom facilities that are conducive for effective learning and teaching to take place and called on the Education Department to look into this.

The NCD education division's first assistant secretary, Peter Kants has urged city schools to develop their School Learning Improvement Plan [SLIP] program to cater for these issues of overcrowding and deteriorating classrooms.

Meantime, Education Minister Lukas Dekena has indicated that each district has been allocated a K2 million in funding under the District Service Improvement Program [DSIP] which can be used for school infrastructure development.