18 November, 2021
By Evance Odhiambo
Long distance covered to and from school by students in day secondary schools in rural areas within Kisumu county exposes most students especially girls to danger. Some are lured into early sexual encounters by those offering them ride to and from school. This leads to school dropout and teen pregnancies among others. The long journey to school on foot hinders students from realizing their academic dreams since they waste a lot of time. They get to school exhausted and unable to concentrate in class. The long walk to school also leads to emergence of indiscipline cases among students who deviate to illegal activities such as drug and substance abuse.
This was the same challenge at Bar Union Secondary School which is a public school in Kisumu West Sub-County before 2016. Being a mixed day secondary school and in a rural set up, most students trek from far and wide to quench their education thirst.
According to the school’s Principal Mrs. Betty Oyuga, they have changed the narrative since the introduction of bicycles that are given to the students. The school first received a donation of 150 bicycles from World Bicycle Relief, an NGO working with the society to solve some of their problems by donating bicycles. Mrs. Oyuga says that the bicycles were majorly targeting the girl child that are vulnerable and are exposed to dangers within the society. However, the school decided not to leave boys behind since some of them too are vulnerable.
‘’World Bicycle relief approached as after realizing the high population of the students at Bar Union Secondary School. Most of the students are from needy families that cannot afford daily transport to school. From the first donation, we decided that the girls would get 70% of the bicycles as the boys get 30%,’’ says Mrs. Oyuga in an interview with this publication in her office.
She said that the school has since received the bicycles as follows: 100 in 2017, 70 in 2018, 115 in 2019 and 102 in 2020. They are yet to receive bicycle donation in 2021. The school now has a total of 537 bicycles. The bicycles are given to the students upon application and consideration by a special committee (Bicycle Supervisory Committee) that comprises of a board member, a teacher, a parent and a community representative. The parameters used to allocate bicycles to students include the distance, performance, discipline, disability and the level of vulnerability.
Students who continue from form one to four without being transferred to other schools are allowed to go with the bicycles after form four. This helps in retaining the students in school from the admission point. Those that transfer midway are however required to return the bicycles for other students to use.
‘’The bicycles are specially allocated to the students. We ensure only the deserving students are considered,’’ posed Mrs. Oyuga.
According to Mrs. Oyuga since the students started using these bicycles to school, they have realized sterling performance in the national examination. The performance for other classes has also improved. The school is optimistic of getting a mean of 5.5 in the next national examination. This could not be realized when the students were trekking long distance to school. She also said that the movement of students from school can be monitored.
‘’You see, with this bicycles, the students cannot sneak out of school. It is very difficult and tempting to do that. Besides that, the bicycles help the students reach home safe and in time,’’ say Mrs. Oyuga.
The rate of school dropout especially among the girls has drastically reduced at Bar Union Secondary School since they started using the bicycles. The cases of teenage pregnancies have also reduced. The girls don’t depend on lifts anymore. Besides that, the students are allowed to pair in a bicycle hence making it difficult for sex pests to pounce on them on their way home.
Belinder Anyango who is in Form 3 and Kelvins Onyango Awinda who is Form 4 are among the beneficiaries of the bicycles. They say with the help of the bicycles, they are able to reach school in time and have private studies thus improving their performance. Besides that, the bicycles also help them in running errands back home hence reducing time wastage and allowing them to create enough time to focus on their studies.
‘’We have greatly benefitted from these bicycles. With them, we get to school in time and have our studies. We don’t get into problems with teachers on duty. They have also helped in keeping us in school since the dropout has been eliminated,’’ says the students.
The bicycles just like any the machine undergo wear and tear. Daniel Ochieng’ Teti who hails from the school’s neighborhood was trained on how to maintain the bicycles. He does daily and monthly maintenance and he is paid by the school for the monthly maintenance while the daily maintenance is paid for by the students based on what is repaired.
‘’I was trained by World Bicycle Relief on how to maintain these bicycles. This has been of great benefit to me. From here, I get my daily bread. Initially, I was just operating a roadside bicycle repair business that could not take care of my basic needs. I now live decently because of this work,’’ says Ochieng’.
According to the program manager at World Bicycle relief Mr. Peter Wachuli, the bicycle project has helped in improving academic performance in the schools they target within Kisumu County, Bar Union Secondary School included. He said that they donate the bicycles in coordination with the ministry of education.
‘’We target mixed day schools with at least a population of 300. The school must be in a place that is flat enough for easy riding. This project has made a lot of strides; the key objective is to retain girls in school. The program has also impacted on performance since the students spend a lot of time next to their books. They are not worried about their security to and from school,’’ says Mr. Wachuli.
According to Bar Union’s Principal Mrs. Betty Oyuga, the main challenge they are experiencing is road use by the students. The main tarmac road used by the students is narrow and busy with Public Service Vehicles. This puts the lives of students at risk as they ride to and from school. However, the school has not witnessed any road accident.
‘’I really thank the motorists plying this route. They have ensured our students are safe on the road. They always slow down once they notice students riding. However, we are always worried as we release students after school closes in the evening. We don’t know what they may encounter while on the busy road,’’ she interjected.
Mrs. Oyuga advised other organizations to come on board with such initiatives to help keep the students in school and improve their performance. She also implored other schools to copy such initiative whose success is commendable.