Poverty pushes primary school learners to hawking paper bags

A section of Oruba Primary School pupils in Migori County have been forced to hawk polythene paper bags to meet their daily expenses.

Speaking to Ramogi FM, the school’s deputy head teacher, Richard Ongile, said that the children have been forced to the trade by the high level poverty recorded in the area.

The children, he said, hawk the polythene bags in the afternoon hours – between 2pm and 4pm.

Ongile noted that most of those affected are majorly orphans who reside at the nearby Oruba slum and have nobody to take care of them.

He also raised concerns over what he termed as learners engaging in other unlawful activities such as ‘sex-trade’ as a way of making ends meet.

The deputy head teacher noted that most of the pupils are very bright but their education has been affected by the high levels of poverty.

He is now appealing to the national and county governments to develop a programme that will help address the challenges facing this group of learners saying that it is unfortunate and shameful for the children to hawk paper bags.

Some pupils, he said, are the sole breadwinners and act as guardians to their younger siblings and, therefore, cannot dedicate their time to education wholly.

Oruba Primary School is the only government primary school in the Oruba slum in Suna West and has over 1,800 pupils.

Written by Roseann Nga’ang’a