Kiria Primary School

Kiria St. Mark Primary School is a public day institution started in 2007 through the sponsor of the Catholic Church. Later the school was registered by the Ministry of Education as a public day primary school.

The school was in high need of physical facilities. The school had only one permanent classroom which was put up by CDF in 2015. Other classes were mud walled classrooms. The three main mud walled classrooms are divided to occupy six classes.  At the start of every term parents do communal work to repair the walls which keep collapsing during rains. The school is located in the Embu district of Kenya and was chosen as the most needy in the area after an evaluation by The Rotary Club Embu, Kenya.

The objective of the project was to provide a better teaching environment, a healthier classroom and less weather disruption.

The project improved one of the mud walled classrooms so it has become a permanent structure by installing a ring beam frame, concrete floor, interlocking brick walls, refurbished roof/ceilings, and metal doors/windows. The walls were rendered and plastered. The classroom was then painted.

The Rotary Club Embu, Kenya managed the work locally. The scope was developed and supervised by a district works officer from the Kenyan government district public works department. The final approval was given by the schools head teacher.

The beneficiaries are the local community, the school, the 110 boy and 100 girl pupils and the teachers. These 300 direct beneficiaries will benefit by having better teaching environment, a healthier classroom and less weather disruption.  Local suppliers, building companies and construction personnel will benefit from the locally sourced building work.

The main challenges on site were Covid related. The Kenya government stated all classrooms needed to be bigger to give safe spacing at school which increased costs in substructure, floor, ring beam frame and walling. It also delayed the start of work which meant that brick making started late so it was necessary to bring in contactor assistance to help parents make the increased number of bricks when water was available in rainwater ponds on site.  The very heavy rains also meant some work had to be repeated. A storm damaged the original roof which was going to reused making it unusable. Fortunately the Kenya government provided funds to replace it.