Elimu ya Sekondari

The development of secondary education in Longido district is at the embryonic stage due to its historical context and the poor nature of the economy. The district is dominated by the pastoralists communities were most of their time are used to migrate with their herds to different parts of the regions were pastures and water for their animals was available. Other factors include the remoteness of the district, being a game reserve area, and lack of economic infrastructures. As a result, until 2005, the district had only one public secondary school in Longido ward. The number of public secondary schools increased from one to five in 2006 and then reached seven in 2011, all located at Longido, Namanga, Engerenaibor, Tingatinga, Gilai Lumbwa, Olmolog and Ketumbeine wards.

By the end of 2011, public secondary schools increased tremendously to seven due to the government campaign of establishing at least a secondary school in each ward. Out of 16 wards, only seven wards succeeded in building secondary schools by that firm as shown in Table 49.

Table 62: Number of Secondary Schools by Ownership and by Ward, Longido District 2007 to 2011

• Secondary School Enrolment

The enrolment of students in Longido district increases with the increase of school infrastructures constructed through people’s participation and parents’ awareness of the importance of education for their children. Table 70 shows that student’s enrolment in secondary schools increased at an average annual growth 26 percent per annum between 2009 and 2011, but then grew at higher rate of 32 percent between 2012 and 2013.

Table 63: Total (Form I-IV) Enrolment by Sex, Longido District, 2009 - 2012.

Comparing enrolment by sex over the last 4 years, male students were selected more than female students, though the gap has been decreasing slowly. Table 50 shows that the male enrolment rate in 2007 was higher (53 percent) compared to 47 percent for female students. The percentage of selected male students increased slightly to 55 and 57 percent in 2008 and 2009 respectively and dropped to 56 percent in 2010 and then dropped further to 48 percent in 2011. The increasing female enrolment rate is aimed at reaching the Sex Ratio of 1:1 by the year 2015.

By 2006, the district managed to establish one high school, in which a total of 210 students (90 boys and 120 girls) were enrolled. Students enrolled to Advanced level increased slightly and reached to 231 (103 male and 128 female) by the year 2011. Since education is a basic tool for the development of a society, the district authority should make sure that the remaining wards complete their secondary school infrastructures. Also, more efforts are needed to ensure that more high schools are built so that all those who are graduating from ordinary level are enrolled in high schools.

• Quantity and State of School Facilities

The quantity and quality of facilities for the secondary schools system in Longido district are below the standards set by the educational authorities. The most common facilities that are needed are classrooms, toilets, staff quarters, libraries, laboratories, dormitories, desks and teachers. The following discussion aims at indicating quantitative adequacy of the facilities in the district.

• Teachers

Expansion of secondary education should always go hand in hand with the increase in the number of teaching staff. By the end of 2014, Longido district had a total of 251 teachers distributed in 7public secondary schools. This gives an average School Teachers Ratio of 1:16. At ward level, only 3 wards out of 7 with secondary schools had at least 20 teachers per school. These wards are Longido, Olmolog and Namanga which had established secondary schools with all four classes (Form I – IV).

• Staff Quarters

Besides the shortage of teachers, the district also experienced a shortage of staff quarters in all wards. Table 51 shows that, the District School House Teachers Ratio was 1:3which was much higher than the District School House Teachers Ratio of 1:2. The district required 52 houses based on 2011 demand. No ward had the number of houses more than computed school teachers’ ratio. The most affected with a shortage of staff house were Namanga (75 percent), Olmolog (67 percent) and Longido (66 percent).

The Local Authorities at ward level should take into account that the provision of staff houses is a basic incentive for teacher retention and promotion of effective teaching. Therefore, more effort should also be directed towards building staff houses together with other facilities.

Table 64: Availability of Teachers' Houses in Public Secondary Schools by Ward, Longido district, 2013

• Classrooms

Table 53 shows that of the required number of classrooms the district had 46 percent deficit. At ward level, all 7 wards registered shortages ranging from 31 percent to 88 percent.

Table 65: Availability of Classrooms in Public Secondary Schools by Ward, Longido district, 2011

• Dormitories

Construction of dormitories in rural areas is very essential due to the geographical nature of Longido district and distribution of human settlements. The availability of dormitories will help students to solve the problem of walking long distances and reduce the rates of drop outs, pregnancies and truancy. Table 55 reveals the shortage of 33 (58 percent) dormitories in the district by the year 2014.

Ranking of wards in terms of the level of shortages, Namanga ranked the first since it had 88 percent shortage of dormitories. Olmolog and Tingatinga wards had 67 percent shortages, followed by Engarenaibor and Ketumbeine (57 percent), Gilai Lumbwa (33 percent) and lastly Longido (21 percent).

Table 66: Availability of Dormitories in Public Secondary Schools by Ward, Longido District, 2014

• Libraries

The library facility is considered as an essential facility for the development of knowledge and skills of student. According to the standards set by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, every secondary school should have a library to enable students borrow and use supplementary books besides textbooks. Table 56 shows that only Longido ward had a library at the end of 2011. This implies that no supplementary books were available for renting to students in some of the wards in the district.

The observed situation is probably due to the fact that the district is in the transition period of building secondary education system. But it is important for the local authorities to include the provision of libraries in their school development plans for the future.

Table 67: Availability of Libraries in Public Secondary Schools by Ward, Longido District, 2011

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• Desks

Table 57 shows the shortage of desks in all secondary schools. By the end of 2011, the district had a shortage of 1060 desks (23 percent) out of the required 4657. On average, each school had a total of 499 desks instead of 665.

At ward level, the worst shortages were Engarenaibor (46 percent), Tingatinga (42 percent) and Namanga (35 percent) whereas, the less affected wards were Longido (02 percent), Tingatinga (06 percent), Gilai Lumbwa and Olmolog (13 percent).

Table 68: Availability of Desks in Public Secondary Schools by Ward, Longido District, 2011

• Laboratories

The laboratory is a necessary facility for students majoring in science subjects. The specifications set by the government are that each school should have at least three laboratories for physics, chemistry and biology subjects. Table 58 shows that the district has only 5 laboratories located at Longido and Olmolog wards

Table 69: Availability of Laboratories in Public Secondary Schools by Ward, Longido District, 2011

• College and Vocation Training Schools

Longido district is not endowed with colleges and vocational training schools.

• Adult Education

Longido district had not made a remarkable improvement in the eradication of illiteracy since its establishment in 2007. Along with expansion of primary and secondary educations, the district should has also expanded adult education using primary schools as centres but this is different in the district. The district should campaign about adult education and the head teachers becoming in-charge of the adult education campaigns through the MEMKWA programme. 

• Investment Opportunities in Education

The challenges facing the development of education sector include; inadequacy of pre-primary schools, primary schools and secondary schools and lack of colleges and vocational training schools as well as school facilities like classrooms, textbooks, laboratories, toilets, learning and teaching materials and inadequacy of teachers. Therefore investment in the supply of textbooks, laboratory equipment and materials and building materials is needed. More emphasis is placed on the establishment of a college and/or a vocational training school at least one in the district.

• Water Supply

Due to the topography and climatic condition of Longido district, the reliable availability of water source is a serious problem to the people residing in the district. Most of water sources available in the district are not reliable since they only provide water during rainy season and during dry season tend to dry completely. Therefore the availability of water is a major challenging issue in the district now especially by considering the high population growth experienced in the district.

• Rural Water Supply

Water supply in Longido district consists of piped water, springs, shallow wells, rain water, bore holes, dams and charco dams. The data from the Water Department shows that in 2007 the rural population was supplied water by using different types of water technologies. About 48 percent of total population of Longido district obtain their water through 32 gravity piped water system, 2.4 percent through 18 water sources pumped with diesel generators, 0.2 percent supplied with 2 hand pumped water sources and 0.8 obtain water through source power by  2 Wind Mills. Other 16.6 percent of the population depend mostly on other sources of water such as shallow wells, charco dams and unprotected springs.

• Water Supply Personnel

Unlike health and education sectors, all personnel for the water sector (rural and urban) are located at the district headquarters. This is a new setup, different from the previous setup where all technical staff was posted at ward headquarters. In 2007 there were only one personnel in Water Department, and in 2009, the number increases to six making the department at least active in the provision of water services. Therefore, in 2013, there was no attrition of water personnel thus making the department to be contained with 6 (5 male and 1 female) personnel.

• Sanitation

Longido district does not have a waste disposal system. Therefore, there are no proper ways of disposing solid waste and waste water. Very few households have septic tanks and the most common way of disposing human waste is through pit latrines.

Moreover, with the lack of cesspit emptier and solid waste dump trucks, over-flooding sewage and uncollected garbage pollutes the environment of Longido and Namanga towns.

• Investment Opportunities in Water Supply

Longido district is faced with a scarcity of water sources and supply systems. Although the district has made some efforts in providing safe and clean water to its urban and rural population, this is not enough to accommodate the largest number of people walking away long distances every day and waste a lot of time looking for water. Investment is needed in regards to the supply of pipes, drilling and pumping equipment and the increase of the capacity of water storage.