In most of Africa, the elderly are the know it all. They also keep some cautious closeness with the young ones. Not so much in Longewan, a tiny village some 350 kilometers North of Nairobi.
Here, the Samburu, a pastoral community still clung on traditional culture, parents are joining their kindred in classrooms. However, the parents are not studying for exams but to demystify education, understand it so that they can accord their children proper guidance.
“We’re doing this so that we can actively monitor the progress of our children’s education,” says Alice Lesororo, a mother of six children at Longewan Primary School.
Like hundreds of parents in Samburu, Lesororo is being introduced to the process of the school system so that she can appreciate education and offer the best support to her children.
“Today I have learnt what to look for in an exercise book. I know when my children have failed and when they have got sums right,” she enthuses when we catch up with her during break time.
With an acute sense of insecurity, drought and a bleak future, parents here know the way to sustain and perpetuate a generation is through the classroom and not the age-old culture of cattle and raids.
“I want the best for my children,” Lesororo declares thoughtfully. “I have six children in this school; it is important they succeed. Education is their future.”
Ordinarily at this hour, Lesororo would be tending to cattle. Her children used to miss school in turns to support in domestic chores. All that is in the past, she promises.
Parents here are increasingly being sensitized on education issues. Today, they troop
classes and seminars in their hundreds in a bid to understand the dynamics of education, a pattern that repeats with rhythm and fabled harmony. They love it, thanks to an elaborate home-grown model mooted by retired teachers to stimulate the growth of education in an area where literacy levels are hitting the 90 per cent red mark.
“Former teachers chose to sensitize parents on the importance of their children education. We realized that there was little appreciation of education due to illiteracy. That is why we chose to bring them to classrooms,” says Joseph Owino, one of the founders of Samburu Education Empowerment Programme (SEEP).
Their efforts have given forth fruits. Today, the Samburu parent knows the primacy of working closely with the teacher and the pupils in an interesting tripartite arrangement.
Now the parents understand the importance of inspecting exercise books. They are being encouraged to allow their children time to complete assignments. The parent is aware too that the future of their sons and daughters is not in the meadows but classrooms.
Rose Lenkai knows this too well. Her children go to Lesuuk Primary School, and Rose has been keen to know why the homework seems to be too little. She raised the issue with some teachers and the workload increased a bit.
“Now my children are busy. When I have time, I assist in the revision,” she says.
SEEP came up with an ingenious way of engaging parents. First they told the difference between a ‘tick’ and ‘X’. they know what to look for. Parents also can count the pages of the exercise book to determine whether the assignments are enough. They no longer tolerate absenteeism.
This new wave is threatening to the non-performing teachers. Not once, parents have stormed schools to demand explanation when pupils lag behind.
“Some parents now know the syllabus and we can’t afford to drag our feet. There is a time they came to demand why their children were not given enough assignments,” Rodgers Wambuko, the head teacher Lesuuk says.
This is an effort of how interventions are changing lives at communities. Parents are finding the opportunity outstanding. Initially, schools here were registering very low enrollment, there was runaway absenteeism, but all that seem to be in the past as the new wave catches momentum.
“Initially we believed education is the prerogative of teachers. We never bothered. But now we have been sensitized and we are keen,” Lesororo says.
And it doesn’t end at the classroom. Lesororo says every evening she must check her daughters exercise books to see if it has been marked. She knows that she can confront a teacher in the event of laxity. She knows the difference between a right and a wrong and she knows that her daughter must go to school. That’s not enough. She knows every day the teacher must give her daughter some assignments.
“We chose to provide seminars to parents and encourage them to take interest in education for the good of their children,” says Owino, a partner at the “We realized that left of their own, the level of literacy will remain high.”
“Children are no-longer let to go for wood or herding. Parents take that role,” she says.
Leah Njeri, a programme advisor at SNV Netherlands Development Organization is upbeat that the next generation of Samburu will not be one of bows and arrows but one with pens and papers. SNV has been keen on changing the fortunes of education in marginalized areas by building the capacities of such organization as SEEP and the Ministry of Education.
“Our approach is holistic. It ranges from empowering on proper management of funds to attracting and retaining pupils,” Njeri says.
Education no doubt is gaining currency here as the new social economic enterprise in this county. Parents tread unchartered paths, away from the pastureland and the under-tree tobacco-snuffing-prattle to ensure that their kindred invest for the future. This idea was mooted to bring to speed the county at par with other areas.
“We demystify what education is, and know the importance of education and how they can participate in the growth of their children,”Owino says.
We encourage parents to prepare their children in the morning for school, to monitor performance in schools. Most of those we target are the ones who don’t understand the workings of a school environment,” he says. .
In the manyattas, we bump in Josephine Namlek. She peruses the exercise book of her child to check on progress and performance. She follows up with the school to establish the problem. This way everything is put on the straight and the narrow. Education for the daughter has really improved, she says.
Namlek also enlists the services of older children to guide her on the performance of the younger ones.
“I didn’t know what to do with elder children. Perhaps that is why they didn’t perform well. Today I know better,” Namlek says.
Wambuko is happy, he says. There is positive change among stakeholders following genuine participation and interrogation.
“We assist the parents to get the feel of a classroom. We guide them to cross-check the progress of school work and not to be misled by cheeky pupils. Therefore, they count the pages; put identifying marks to see progress. Parents-support groups represent the classes,” Owino explains.
Here, parents have been encouraged to provide time, space, lighting, food and to closely work with teachers.