The Power of a Boy's Education
Tumaini Academy educated and instills excellent values to both male and female primary students. But Kenyan regulations require that all boarding schools at the high school level must be single sex.
“In fact if it were not [for this education], I would not be where I am.”
The Kenyan Ministry of Education doesn’t allow mixed gender high schools. All boarding Kenyan High Schools are single sex, either boys or girls.
The Diocese of Marsabit had a choice. Knowing that the graduates from Tumaini Primary School need further education, the church began making plans for a high school. But should they first build a high school for girls, or a high school for boys? There are not enough resources to begin building both immediately.
They decided to begin with St. Andrew High School for Boys.
This might seem like a very un-politically correct decision from an American point of view. Aren’t girls the ones with fewer opportunities for education? And hadn’t the top student from the first class of Tumaini students been a girl, Faith Diko? Shouldn’t the diocese prioritize girls in this instance?
In this case, it makes more sense to begin with a boys school. But not in the way one might think. This is not a case of assuming the culture won’t recognize the value of a girl’s education.
Rather, in the Borana culture, girls will often take the religion of the families they join through marriage. Girls who come to know Jesus at Tumaini Academy are at risk of losing the chance to practice their faith if their family arranges a marriage for them with a non-Christian family. As Christians are only 20% of the population in this region of Northern Kenya, this is a real possibility. Many of the female students at Tumaini come to Christ at school but go home to their Muslim families at night.
Another reason is that it is culturally assumed that one way to improve the local culture is to develop boys with a strong Christian faith. Christian men in this region are known - and admired - for their integrity. They have fewer problems with drinking, drug abuse, and unemployment. These are the sort of men that Christian families wish their daughters to marry. And they are men that everyone in this culture wants in positions of responsibility. Indeed, it is not unusual for the government to have Christians in charge of finances. Surely not all Christians are perfectly moral. But the perception that they are honest and the quality academic education that Tumaini has offered, makes a church-operated High School for Boys appealing to everyone in the community.
Plans for St. Andrew’s High School for Boys are now underway. At the consecration of the school grounds in 2019, Governor Mohamud Ali, offered his support. A Muslim educated by missionaries, he shared, “Personally I feel at home because I grew up in a Christian Center. Even during my early days when I went to nursery school it was a missionary who gave us the opportunity … and in fact if it were not [this], I would not be where I am.”
Senator Canon Naomi Waqo added her voice of support, charging the audience to educate boys “so that girls have the chance to live in families that are strong.”
The Kenya Christian Education Partnership has been raising money to begin construction. And while we are pursuing funding that might allow the building of two high schools simultaneously, we have to initially plan for St. Andrew’s.
If you would like to know more about this partnership and the relationship with the church in Northern Kenya, reach out to us or visit this website of stories.
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