School turned into college to avert crisis

A secondary school in Wajir Town is to be converted into a teachers’ training college, Governor Ahmed Abdullahi has said.

The county government also wants to complete the construction of a medical college before December.

The governor told the Press yesterday that the county had a shortage of 1,000 primary school teachers and hundreds more were needed in secondary schools.

To encourage more students to become teachers, Mr Abdullahi said the government would sponsor some of them to study at the proposed college.

“By the end of this year, we will convert one of our secondary schools to a teachers’ training college, to increase the number of teachers,” he added.

Wajir is one of the worst performing counties in the national primary and secondary school examinations.

“We cannot entirely rely on the other parts of Kenya to provide us with teachers forever. We will motivate students from this county willing to study teaching courses,” Mr Abdullahi said.

The county has also started hiring health workers for local public hospitals.

A medical training college is currently being built and the governor pledged to complete it before the end of this year and start admitting students by early next year.

The expansive county has 80 public health facilities, 27 private clinics and two others run by non-governmental organisations and missions.