Leaders in Imenti Central sub county have raised concerns over the poor academic performance in the area and called for concerted efforts to reverse the trend.
The leaders now want education stakeholders to go back to the drawing board and come up with ways of reviving education performance in the area.
Imenti Central Professional Association chairman Charles Mbogori and Brian Mutembei who is the Association secretary regretted that if the trend is not reversed the locals will miss out on high profile jobs and development projects from the national government.
Mbogori said the poor academic performance have reached alarming rates and called on all the concerned parties to find a lasting solution.
“Many children are dropping out of school due to alcohol and drug abuse. This has led to the decline in academic performance in the area. The region is usually ranked last position in academic performance.
“I urge parents to ensure they return their children back to school in order to enable them learn. Let’s find out how else they can be assisted in order to improve their performance in the national examinations,” said Mbogori.
Mutembei said education standards in the area have dropped drastically and called for a solution to reverse the trend.
The officials spoke at Kathiranga ICT resource center in Central Imenti constituency when the Association issued a Sh1 million cheque for the construction of ICT centre meant to uplift the education standards in the area.
Mutembei vowed not to stop pushing for positive education reforms until a lasting solution to the academic crisis is found, adding that drug and alcohol abuse are to blame for the poor performance.
He also blamed the national government for sidelining the Imenti community in the recent appointments of the Cabinet Secretaries, saying this was the first time since independence that the Imenti region had missed out on cabinet appointments.
“The government has deliberately sidelined the Imenti region since this is the first time we have been left out. Despite many being sacked nobody was appointed to replace them.
“All the former regimes of the late Mzee Kenyatta, Daniel Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta had cabinet secretaries from the Imenti community. I wonder why President Ruto has sidelined the region,” lamented Mutembei.
He castigated the Meru elected leaders for failing to call for a crisis meeting to condemn the outright discrimination and challenged them to lobby for job opportunities for their electorates instead of always politicking.
