Kapkenduiywo Primary – a remarkable school with a remarkable head-teacher

Today I visited a primary school that sits on the edge of Langas, the largest ‘slum’ in Eldoret. It is the school that I will be bringing a CRED team to next February and the purpose of today’s visit was to meet the staff, especially the head-teacher, sort out the plans for the activity week next year, do the risk assessment side of things, and get photos to help with preparing the team.

I am pleased to say that I achieved all of that very satisfactorily, and had a really good time at the school, but alongside that I can now also say that I have visited the primary school who recently had a pupil age 84yrs old, and met the headteacher who defied the authorities in order to allow him to study.

Here is the story:

When the Kenyan Government announced in 2003 that it was making primary education free for all, what it really meant was that it was making it free for all children. But for Kimani Maruge, an 84 yr old man who had missed out on education as a child, he took the statement literally and went along to his ‘local’ school to enroll to study.

The headteacher of the school – Jane Obinchu – took a bit of persuading, but, recognizing access to education as a basic human right for all, and seeing the determination of Maruge to enroll, she allowed him to be a student at her school.

The local education authorities were not happy, and regularly tried to obstruct his enrolment in various ways, including requirement for wearing shorts despite his age, the need to provide educational supplies, and pressure on Jane to change her mind.

Jane received threats, at home and at school, from those unhappy with the situation but she stuck to her guns and continued to allow Maruge to learn to read and write.

The full story can be seen in the film ‘The First Grader’, which is definitely worth a watch, and chatting to Jane today her passion for justice, and access to education for all continues to be very apparent. If any student can’t afford the uniform, or the exam fees, Jane will often self-fund a bit of extra money to fill the gap. And she and her staff also act as social workers for the children, in an area which includes some very chronic poverty-induced problems. A very God-filled lady following her calling in a beautiful way

The school hosts a feeding programme run by Mary’s Meals, and served from a kitchen funded by the Solomon Project (a UK-based charity from NW England), and it was lovely to watch the children being given a healthy wholesome midday meal, but also sobering to think that for many of the children that will be their only meal of the day.

The children were all so happy and clearly value their education in a big way. They study in classes of roughly 60 – 70 students per class, so our team are going to have their work cut out for them when we come to do the activity week, but there is no doubting that we will be going to an extremely positive, inspiring school, and will all come away the richer in many ways for the experience – I certainly did!