Education

The district is reasonably well covered with educational institutions as shown in the table below:

The district boasts 3 provincial secondary schools, namely, Kangubiri Girls, Kamundia Girls and Kimathi Memorial High Schools. Under the Economic Stimulus Program (ESP), the three institutions are being upgraded to become “centers of excellence”.

Kagumo Teachers Training College -a national institution with enrolment from every corner of the county - is also situated in Tetu. The college has a total of 900 students, 133 teaching staff and 130 non-teaching staff.

The physical infrastructure in most schools is in a very poor state.

Many of the primary schools and a number of secondary schools are lacking in power and sanitation and most do not have proper laboratory services. Like elsewhere nationally, the schools suffer from shortage of teaching staff.

All these factors have, to a large extent, contributed to declining educational standards in the constituency.

CDF continues to play a major role in the rehabilitation of these facilities to help improve the quality of learning, in addition to provision of bursaries to needy children.

23 primary schools have partially been rehabilitated under the Government's “Schools Infrastructure Development Program”.

The emphasis on quality education in the district emanates from the belief that educated people will get quality jobs and improved living standards. This will lead to the reduction of dependency rates.

However, HIV/Aids have affected the quality of education and primarily the demand and supply chain of teachers. On the supply side, the increase in morbidity and mortality among teachers and education officials has affected the quality of education offered.

Infected and affected teachers and officials are unable to deliver services or are not replaced on time. More so, the girl child stays at home to cater for sick parents while the boy goes out to the streets for survival. There are more orphan students and fewer teachers.

On the other hand, the introduction of the free education in Kenya has seen enrolment levels, especially of vulnerable children, rise steadily. This high enrolment has also compromised the quality education.

Arising out of his passion for education, Hon. F.T. Nyammo continues to regularly engage teachers, parents, BOGs/PTAs and students on the need to improve education standards in the district.

Further the Education sub-committee of TDA has actively continued to engage teachers and BOGs/PTAs in both primary and secondary schools in an effort to improve the quality of education.

ICT

Tetu Constituency becomes ict compliant

Tetu became among the first districts in the country to embrace ICT after a successful launch of the first internet connectivity in a digital centre, a school and a kiosk on June 27, 2008.

Hon. FT Nyammo commissioned a digital centre located at Nyeri Technical College, a digital school at Dr. Kamundia Girls Secondary and a digital kiosk operated by a sole proprietor in Muthinga market. He pledged that more centers are to be set up as funds become available to make Tetu a fully ICT complaint district.

He also officially unveiled the Tetu district and Nyeri Town websites during the Nyeri ICT Expo held at Temple Road School.

By implementing this ICT project, Hon. Nyammo , in essence, conveyed the message that the digital economy is as important as, if not more important than,  the traditional economy — farming, shop-keeping, bee-keeping and so on.

The digital kiosks or centers will facilitate an array of services — cybercafés, computer training, e-government, M-Pesa, fax machines, digital cameras and telephone and it is expected that the youth in Tetu will take advantage of the kiosks and markets to establish ICT driven businesses, thus creating employment.

At the same time, all learning institutions in the constituency that have computer laboratories are to be connected to the internet.

The Kenya Data Network (KDN) has set up a wireless mast at the top of Nyeri Hill which can serve a radius of 60 kilometers. Small businesses using this facility do not have to pay for the expensive satellite (VSAT) or fibre optic cabling infrastructure. Instead, they will only pay for the connectivity they enjoy.

The CDF is already involved in the construction of computer laboratories in secondary schools as well as purchase of computers.

Hon. Nyammo has emphasized that ICT has been flagged by Vision 2030 as a key development pillar if the country is to achieve the set developmental goals. Thus it is expected to be a cornerstone of development in the constituency.