School in dire need of science laboratory

Markham Valley Secondary students are struggling with a small laboratory that they have been using for science practicals since the school was still a junior high school.
The laboratory can take only 40 students at a time.
Principal Billy Kayo said the school’s 1,200 boarders and 108 day students were desperate for laboratory sessions.
The school has 26 classes of which 20 have lessons that require the use of the science laboratory.
“It’s very small, yet teachers improvise to teach and conduct exams. It’s a really big struggle. We have proposed and are desperate to have a four-in-one science lab.” Kayo said.
“The school gained the secondary status in 2008; it’s 10 years and we really need a science lab.”
All science resources, apparatus, lab materials and stationery are jumbled up in the lab, and at storage room.
Five science teachers are using the chemical storeroom as office, which was not safe, while others look for spaces elsewhere in the school.
Head of the science department, Christina Lani, who has been teaching at the school since 1996, said during lessons some students occupy stools while others stood throughout lessons.
“We have to improvise by having Grade 10 science practical exams part one in the lab and part two in students dining hall.
“We shift equipment to dining hall and set up there to cater for part two of students’ science practical all these years since the school became secondary,” Lani said.