Wajir South MP Adow to pay full fees for teacher trainees

Mohamed Adow

Wajir South MP Mohamed Adow addressing the media after a meeting to address drought effects in Wajir town. Mr Adow has promised to pay fees to students joining teachers training colleges to address shortage of tutors in the county.

Photo credit: Edwin Kipsang I Nation Media Group

Wajir South MP Mohammed Adow has pledged to pay full fees for his constituents' training as teachers so as to boost the number of tutors in the county and improve education standards.

Wajir and northern Kenya counties have a shortage of teachers due to a mass exodus of non-local tutors following frequent Al-Shabaab attacks.

Speaking in Leheley in his constituency on Thursday, the former Al Jazeera journalist decried the shortage, saying urgent local solutions were needed.

“It is a pity that most schools in Wajir South have one or at most two teachers,” Mr Adow said.

He issued an email address where his constituents willing to train as teachers could apply and join teachers’ colleges.

He appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to deploy more teachers to northern Kenya.

He pushed for more local teachers to be trained to address frequent exoduses of non-locals due to insecurity.

“What we must underline is that we cannot have adequate teachers in the region if big chunks of the teaching staff are not from this region,” he said.

“I have developed a plan where we are going to sponsor all trainees in teachers’ training colleges from Wajir South and we will pay their school fees 100 per cent.”

He urged local leaders to commit to helping young people get a good education.

Leading students

With national exams around the corner, Mr Adow wished the candidates well and urged them to refrain from cheating.

The legislator promised to pay fees for leading students in primary and secondary schools in each sub-county in Wajir South to motivate them.

“I am promising to pay the leading girl child and boy child fees in every sub-county both at the KCSE and KCPE level,” he said.

He added that he will also support the other students financially “but not 100 per cent”.

In August, the TSC decried a low turnout in a recruitment drive in the vast Wajir County.

Speaking to Nation.Africa in Wajir town, TSC county director James Ogongo said the agency had readvertised 325 P1 teacher vacancies in the region following the departure of non-locals in 2020 due to insecurity.

Non-locals

“The condition was that the locals and non-locals who work within the county to apply,” Mr Ogongo said.

Non-local teachers have been leaving Wajir, Mandera and Garissa counties due to frequent terror attacks targeting them.

The exodus has undermined education in the vast region.

Top presidential contenders in the August 9 elections had promised to address the problems facing the education sector in Wajir if elected.

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition flagbearer Raila Odinga pledged to lower entry grades for training colleges for locals.