HE fate of 150 deaf students at a school in Mathira, Nyeri, hangs in the balance after the government withdrew its 15 teachers from the institution over an ownership dispute. The Tumutumu School for the Deaf wrangle pits the government and the PCEA Church.
The church has opposed an attempt by the government to have the school registered under the Local District Education Board, saying the state wants to control it.
The Teachers Service Commissioner withdrew the special teachers from the institution that is sponsored by the church. Also likely to be affected are 15 Standard Eight candidates who are expected to sit their KCPE at the institution later in the year.
Parents taking back their children to the school on Tuesday following the calling off of the teachers' strike were shocked to find the gates to the institution closed and sentries denied them entry.
They claimed that they were informed that the institution would be closed down following the withdrawal of the teachers. It took the intervention of officials from the Kenya Society for Deaf led by the director, Makarius Kathenya and chairman Geoffrey Wathigo, to convince PCEA officials to re-admit the pupils as a solution to the teachers' transfer is sought.
The day-long meeting was attended by among others the Reverend Nahashon Mwaura who is the church's education director resolved that the school shall not be closed and that immediate negotiations with the government would be initiated to have the transferred teachers return.
The Rev Mwaura denied claims by the parents that the school would be made a university.
