Education in Kenya
Looking into educational differences throughout the country.
2003
Introduction of Kenya's Free Primary Education Program
The introduction of Kenya's Free Primary Education Program got rid of all fees in regards to public schools leading to an increase in educational availability, allowing more students to be able to take the exit exam for primary school (Lucas and Mbiti 2012).
Urban vs. Rural
“Primary school access and completion has greatly improved in both rural and urban areas, with gaps in counties in the north and north east” (Global Partnership for Education 2020).
The educational system in Kenya follows the 8-4-4 model; 8 years in primary, 4 years in secondary, and 4 years in university (Clark 2016).
Urban:
- Those living in urban areas have a better school enrollment rates than those in rural areas (Population Reference Bureau 2013).
- There is an increase in private schools (Lucas and Mbiti 2012), which lead to more poor students attending private schools even though there is the Free Primary Education Program; which can be due to the family's views on education and whether or not they believe the program meets their child(ren)'s educational needs (Oketch et al. 2009).
Rural:
- Marginalized areas have difficult times dealing with a lack of infrastructure for students (Guleid 2021).
- Multiple classes can be, and are, heald in the same room, leading to hundreds of students in one place (Guleid 2021).
- "According to the latest Kenya National Bureau of Statistics survey, the number of children who have not yet reported back to school or have not yet enrolled in the [Arid and Semi-Arid Lands] ASAL region is more than 1.2 million" (Guleid 2021).
Rural vs. Urban Education and Safety & ASAL Counties
Gender Gap
**For the purpose of this StoryMap, the focus will be on the genders of male and female.**
(Correction on the middle-left side, it should read "choose."*)
- “...girls are more likely to stay in primary, transition to secondary and complete secondary compared to boys, but girls are severely disadvantaged in the arid and semi-arid regions in the north,”(Global Partnership for Education 2020).
- Culture has a lot to do with why many girls in rural communities and certain cultural communities do not attend school.
- Marriage is legal at 16 years of age; "In rural Kenya, one in two girls is married by age 19," and the amount of "...girls getting married below the age of 18 is 30.5 percent" (Hine 2018)
- Due to the belief in girls focusing on marriage instead of education, if it comes down to it financially or otherwise, boys are often chosen to attend school over girls (Hine 2018).
- Despite the Free Primary Education Program, the families are required to purchase supplies, such as books and other necessities, for their children which can hinder the family's income through the extra expenses as well as the loss of income coming in from those who are attending school; moreover, this leads to children not attending school, especially girls who are to be married (Kassie 2018).