During a sensitization meeting held on Monday at Technology Primary School in Murang’a town, Murang’a East sub-county Director for Education Samuel Ruitha said that children are affected by GBV and that parents, teachers and the community at large have been cautioned to guard against this vice in an effort to boost the quality of education in the county.

“All stakeholders ought to take precautions that all pupils in schools and at home are not exposed to any type of violence,” said Ruitha adding that children required a peaceful environment for them to grow up well and concentrate in class.

Gender Based Violence is violence directed to a person’s biological sex or gender identity and occurs in various forms, with most rampant cases being physical and sexual violence.

The vice knows no social or economic boundaries and affects both girls and boys of all socio-economic backgrounds.

The director observed that GBV in school-going children leads to poor academic performance, school dropouts, early marriages, class absenteeism and low self-esteem among the victims among other effects.

“It is the government’s policy that we should have one hundred per cent transition of pupils going from primary schools to secondary schools or and at any education level,” he said adding that GBV is one of the factors that could inhibit this transition and cause untold suffering to the victims if it is not nipped in the bud.

He said that the Ministry of Education in partnership with the World Bank has come up with a programme dubbed Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQUIP) that seeks to enable education stakeholders to address challenges like gender based violence that affect the quality of education.

“SEQUIP aims at enhancing retention in upper primary and transition from primary to secondary education in targeted areas through improving school infrastructure and provision of scholarship, mentorship, advocacy, gender sensitization and social support,” he said.

On his part, Murang’a East Deputy County Commissioner Thomas Nyoro thanked the stakeholders for coming together to deliberate on the issues that lead to GBV and the impact it has on the quality of education.

“Gender based violence in schools and homes should be avoided at all costs,” he said adding that such vices were affecting the upbringing of our children in a negative way and in turn caused them to perform poorly in schools among other effects.

He said that cases of violence should be reported immediately to the police and other relevant authorities like the Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs when witnessed.