In order to address the crisis in Junior Secondary School within Embu County and its environs, an investor has ventured in making and selling mobile laboratories to facilitate Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) learning. According to the investor, Science Lab Limited, the movable laboratories will ease the pressure on schools which have no capacity to build laboratories and equip them especially in remote locations. The company also makes laboratory equipment, chemicals and reagents. Leaky Kipkosgey, who is in charge of sales at the company’s branch in Embu, said the portable lab in the form of a wooden table with metallic framework is equipped with a 13kg gas cylinder, burners and taps, water taps, drainage system and an illumination lamp for lighting. He disclosed that each mobile lab goes for Sh45, 000 and can accommodate between eight and twelve students at a go and has the ability to carry out experiments for physics, chemistry and biology subjects. ‘This portable laboratory is good as it can be operated inside a classroom or outside in the open air since it does not require a school to build a laboratory structure if it has no capacity,’ he said. He said the ‘lab without walls’ was a remedy for schools hampered by lack of equipment and infrastructure due to its affordability and portability. Marketer, Joseph Munyi, said the portable workstations were alternative for already congested schools and called on the government to fund schools to procure them. The Branch Manager, Marina Njoki, said the lab is mostly recommended for Junior Secondary and Day Secondary Schools due to its portability and was a powerful platform of equipping learners with hands-on skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education. ‘These labs are effective in enriching classroom education and also filling the void in schools where opportunities for laboratory experiments do not exist,’ she said.
Source: Kenya News Agency