A little girl’s schooling aspiration has been dashed due to a lack of funds to pay her school fees.
Gloria Amisi was forced to drop out of school and work at a dumpsite because her mother, Rebecca Andeso, couldn’t afford to pay her school fees.
For three months, the saddened adolescent toiled at a dumpsite in Mukuru Kwa Njenga to augment her mother’s meager income.
“I met a woman whom I asked if I could work at the dumpsite, and she allowed me. I collect plastics and scrap metals and give them to her. I earn around KSh 110, which I give to my mother at home,” she told NTV Kenya.
Amisi was meant to be in Grade 7 at Our Lady of Nazareth Primary and Junior Secondary School, but financial difficulties have made that difficult.
Andeso’s efforts to persuade the school administration to allow her daughter to return to school while she seeks KSh 22,000 to offset the balance and acquire the materials necessary of a junior secondary student fell on deaf ears.
This runs counter to the government’s instruction to allow pupils to attend school without paying fees.
“I’ve gone there over five times, but the principal returns me and tells me to look for money,” an emotional Andeso explained.
From the list provided by the school, Andeso could only afford a few blank exercise books as Amissi had not yet attended school for the last four months.
Andeso has two more kids in school and struggles to pay school fees for them, including one in Form One.
“Sipendi kufanya hiyo kazi lakini nataka niingie shule ili nikuwe daktari,” Amisi confessed, adding she would like to help her mother.
