Education Ministry begins school safety checks after student deaths in Nakuru

Quality assurance officers from the Ministry of Education are set to conduct checks across schools in Nakuru County to assess compliance with health and safety standards in Schools.

This comes following the recent deaths of three students within a span of one month in February.

The spot checks, according to Nakuru County Director of Education Victoria Mulili, are aimed at ensuring schools are adhering to the Ministry’s guidelines on emergency preparedness and student health management.

Mulili notes that the quality assurance process has been a practice in the ministry, however the recent student’s death has informed a countywide inspection in all schools.

The move follows separate incidents involving the death of a Form Four student at Njoro Girls High School, a Form Three student at Jomo Kenyatta Boys High School, and most recently, a Class Eight pupil at Moi Primary School.

“We have not done a survey per se on how well schools have complied to the ministry's standard on equipping the school clinics and the staff to offer medical support to, but of course we did investigations in each school where the students’ deaths occurred. Each of the schools responded to the issues,” Mulili says.

She notes that in all three cases, the learners receive first aid or medication within the school before being rushed to hospital for further medical attention. Despite these efforts, the students do not survive.

These incidents have raised concern among parents and the wider education community.

Mulili says that while the cases occur in different institutions, two of them appear to share similarities where the student at Moi Primary and Jomo Kenyatta collapsed in class. They received first aid before being rushed to hospital but were pronounced dead at the hospital. 

She emphasizes that the Ministry has clear guidelines outlining how schools should prepare for and handle emergencies.

Boarding schools, she says, are expected to have a well-equipped clinic, staffed by a qualified nurse and where possible, a doctor to manage emergencies before referral to hospital.

“What is recommended is a nurse who would manage an emergency before the case is referred, especially if it is ser