Kariandusi Primary School
Date started: November 2003
Date completed: January 2005; Extended April 2008; Extended again May 2010
Cost of project: £55,000; Extensions cost a further £25,000
Size of school: Single stream school built for 350 pupils; Now a double stream school for 640 children
One liner: A stunning school that is much admired by many who drive past on the Nairobi to Nakuru road. Its popularity is accounted for by the large influx of displaced children following the election debacle on early 2008.
Picture before:
The mud school prior to October 2004.
Picture after:
The view of the school from the Nairobi - Nakuru road in 2005.
The second of two 4-classroom block extensions built in haste in 2010 to accommodate the large demand for additional space from local children.
Current
Status: Completed
More info:
The first Handover Ceremony was held ahead of schedule on 14th
February 2005. Since the post election violence of early 2008 it
became urgently necessary to help the Internally Displaced Children
(IDP) who wished to settle in peace in the area. Following a very
generous response from numerous supporters in England, four
semi-permanent classrooms were constructed in April 2008. Many desks,
chairs and tables were provided together with hundreds of much needed
text books. An insufficiency of teachers was causing standards to
drop so the charity shared the cost of the salaries of four
additional teachers, some of whom were also IDP from Western Kenya.
The second extension of a further four semi-permanent
classrooms became necessary when it was realized that the majority of
IDP were unwilling to return home. The challenges was exacerbated by
the popularity of the school locally. In 2010 it was clear that
another four classrooms were needed to reduce overcrowding. The total
number of classrooms is now 16. KST now shares the cost of two
qualified teachers and also provides two assistant teachers from the
Langalanga Scholarship Fund prior to them taking up competitive
vacancies in Kenyan universities.
We have
insisted on green corrugated iron sheets on the roofs be used to help
blend the buildings into the landscape. We have incorporated
rainwater harvesting arrangements (gutters to the verandahs,
downpipes and underground pipes to move the excess water from the
buildings).
There is
very little room for sports fields on this rocky sloping site. A
quotation for a measure of levelling was given that proved outside
the ability of KST to pay.