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FREE
PRIMARY EDUCATION IN KENYA:
KEY COMPONENTS THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD INCLUDE
Kenya’s
development challenges have for a long time been poverty, ignorance
and disease. Additional challenges have been identified as HIV/AIDS
and globalization [1]. According to the current National Development
Plan (2002-2008), the development goals include the implementation
of the eight Millennium Development Goals, among which is to “Achieve
universal primary education” [1,2,3]. It is against this backdrop
that the Kenyan government, early this year, began the implementation
of the Free and Compulsory Primary Education program, much to the
delight of a wide cross-section of people, both Kenyan and non-Kenyan.
It
is well known that education has the capacity to improve the quality
of life and to develop the intellectual capacity of a nation, which
is a most valuable resource. This is particularly important at this
particular moment in time, as the country aims to position itself
to achieve sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction, through
effective management. It will be increasingly important for the
Kenyan work force to be literate, numerate, trainable, skilled and
flexible, so as to effectively participate in nation building and
seize the opportunities globalization presents [1].
Prior
to the implementation of the Free and Compulsory Primary Education,
the rates of enrolment at the primary level were below 50% [1].
Much as enrolment rates soared after the government’s declaration
of this program, there are still cases of some children not attending
school. This prompted the government to declare that any parents
not sending their children to school, for whatever reason, would
be prosecuted. However, what remains unclear to most people is that
there are additional underlying factors responsible for children
not attending school.
One
of these is biting poverty. Abagi [4] identified persistent poverty
as one of the constraints to the efficient delivery of the Kenyan
education system. Today, it is an open secret that the majority
of Kenyans live in abject poverty, with this proportion of the population
being placed at 56% [1,5]. According to the 2003 Human Development
Report, the standards of living in Kenya have generally decreased;
with the poor becoming poorer [5]. Some of the poor parents cannot
afford to provide the additional inputs required to sustain the
children in school. These include stationery, school uniforms and
most importantly, food. Poverty is known to breed hunger and malnutrition.
Hungry and malnourished children have reduced capacities to learn.
These children have been shown to perform poorly in school [6].
Another
major contributory factor to school absenteeism is ill health. The
conditions experienced include malaria, helminth infections, diarrheal
disease as well as acute respiratory infections [7]. Unfortunately
these problems seem to be more prevalent among the poor as well.
It is thus the poor children, who are already hungry and malnourished,
who are further robbed of an opportunity to improve their future
lives through acquisition of a basic education. This situation is
more prevalent in informal settlements in urban areas, where the
living conditions are squalid and overcrowded, with poor drainage,
limited or no access to safe drinking water and health facilities.
Girls continue to be absent from school, for a variety of reasons.
Chief among these is the continued socio-cultural perception that
it is better to educate a boy than a girl. In addition, a girl may
be required to stay out of school so as to care for younger siblings;
this has been exacerbated by the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS,
which continues to leave more and more children orphaned. Yet in
some areas, such as among the pastoral communities, there is evidence
of more boys staying out of school to herd cattle, as globally girl
education is emphasized [8].
In
order for the government to ensure that there are more children
retained in school, it needs to address these issues and to do so
urgently. In order to combat short-term hunger, the government can
coordinate, in collaboration with the relevant international agencies
such as the World Food Program (WFP) and others, the implementation
of school feeding programs, whereby these children can be provided
with breakfast or morning snacks. Researchers in Jamaica have established
that providing children with breakfast led to an improvement in
school attendance as well as greater performance in arithmetic [9].
Further, the schools could be supplied with fortified foodstuffs,
especially salt, maize flour and cooking fat or oil, with iodine,
iron and Vitamin A, respectively. In addition, there could be the
establishment of school gardens so as to promote dietary diversity.
Both of these interventions will enable the schools to provide mid-day
meals as well. This will deal with the twin problems of protein-energy
malnutrition as well as micronutrient deficiencies.
Another
aspect that needs to be considered is the adequate provision of
safe water and sanitation facilities, especially for human waste
disposal. The incorporation of deworming programs would form a good
complement to this. These would go a long way towards reducing the
incidences of diarrhea and helminth infections [10].
It
is imperative to involve the local community, so as to establish
a sense of ownership among its members. This would come in handy
in the implementation of this program. They can participate in the
building of the necessary facilities such as pit latrines/toilets
and establishment of the community/school gardens.
Who
are the children to be targeted by these school-feeding programs?
The most logical and practical approach would involve targeting
those children that are the most vulnerable and disadvantaged: the
poor ones living in urban areas and also those coming from households
hard-hit by HIV/AIDS. These are the children coming from homes with
serious food and nutrition insecurity.
While the successful implementation of a ‘wholesome’
school-feeding program may seem a daunting undertaking, the benefits
to be derived from it in the long-term are immeasurable. It will
go a long way in ensuring that Kenyan children stay in school long
enough to acquire the knowledge and skills they require so as to
effectively contribute to nation building as productive workers,
parents and citizens. Most importantly, it will enable us to give
Kenyan children a fighting chance in the global playing field not
just through availing primary education but also improving their
health and nutrition.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The
author wishes to thank Prof. Ruth Oniang’o for editing and
reviewing this paper.
REFERENCES
1.
CBS. Central Bureau of Statistics. National Development
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2002.
2.
Macdonald B, Haddad L, Gross R and M Mc Lachlan
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ACC/SCN, Geneva, 2002
3.
UN General Assembly. Road Map towards the Implementation
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New York, 2001.
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Abagi O Education for the Next Millennium. In:
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for the 21st Century - Macroeconomic and Sectoral Choices. Institute
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UNDP. United Nations Development Program. Human
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SCN News 2002; 25:4-30
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Oniang’o RK Personal Communication.
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Del Rosso JM School Feeding Programmes: Improving
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Child Development, 1999.
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