By Wachira Kigotho
Whereas Kenya is not among 25 sub-Saharan countries that UN says will not meet the education for all goals or the Millennium Development Goals on education by 2015, it has a host of education barriers that still hinder access to education.
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation says Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Sudan are among 30 countries out of the 46 nations that will not be able to eradicate the barriers given the large numbers of children still out of school.
In most countries, attainment of gender parity in primary education is still a far-off wishful thinking.
According to Ms Zulmira Rodrigues, Regional Co-ordinator for Education at Unesco Dakar, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia are some of the countries in East African region whose progress to towards providing access to education for all has stalled.
Other countries in the sub-region that are behind the scheduled objectives are Cameroon, Senegal, Malawi, Swaziland, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Most of the stagnation has been attributed to the prevailing situation in sub-Saharan Africa where almost 23 per cent of children have never been to school or just dropped out before finishing the primary cycle.
Teaching resources
“Absolute number of children that have been denied access to education in the region stands at more than 30 million, where Nigeria accounts for 10.5 million out of school children and Ethiopia 2.4 million,” says Rodrigues in recent Unesco’s preliminary education scorecard report.
In a comprehensive survey, A view inside schools in Sub-Saharan Africa, carried by Unesco Institute of Statistics, inadequate school and teaching resources were identified as some of the challenges facing education in sub-Saharan Africa.
The survey that is being used to identify countries that might not meet EFA goals in about three years’ time, highlights overcrowded classrooms, too few trained teachers, insufficient core textbooks and few toilets, often without separation between boys and girls as some of the crucial indicators that undermine children’s success in their academic ambitions.
Nonetheless, in countries that have no clear-cut policies on multi-grade classrooms there are serious cases of repetition and over-age pupils. Such is the situation prevailing in Kenya, where over-age teenagers and youth are mixed in classes with the compulsory school-age children in lower primary classes. The survey on a view inside schools in sub-Saharan Africa observed over-age pupils, especially those who have been working or married, find it hard to follow rules and obey teachers.
Increasing number
Even as great progress has been made in putting many pupils into classrooms, the steady rise in enrolment has not been met with adequate teachers.
According to Unesco, some countries, especially that have been identified as falling short of envisaged expectations, need to more than double their teaching staff by 2015 if they were to provide education to all the children.
To cater for the increasing number of pupils in schools, almost 40 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa would have to increase their teaching staff by more than 75 per cent, says Unesco.
Ideally, Kenya might not need to almost double its teaching force but the shallow recruitment drive of about 10,000 additional teachers per year that the government subsequently intends to unfold is nothing more than a drop in the ocean.
The number of pupils has increased from 5.9 million in 2002 to 10 million this year. However, little have been done to add more teachers or to replace those who retire or leave education through the normal attrition process.
Another area of concern is that of inadequate supply of core textbooks, especially those of reading and mathematics. UNESCO says the situation is particularly worse in Central Africa Republic where researchers recently found that eight pupils were sharing one reading and mathematics textbook. “In Cameroon, there is on average only one reading textbook for eleven pupils and one mathematics book for 13 children,” says Hendrik.
Nevertheless, in Kenya there is nothing to be happy about in relation to supply of core textbooks, especially in public primary schools. According to Unesco-backed Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality, only 15 per cent of pupils have the sole use of mathematics textbook.
Faring badly
“It is troubling that numbers of available textbooks in Kenya has dropped since 2000, when the percentage pupils with sole use of mathematics textbooks was 23 per cent, “ says the recent SACMEQ study on status of school inputs in 14 countries in Southern and Eastern Africa.
The researchers noted a modest concentration of textbooks in Nairobi at 47 per cent, while rural counties fared badly.
For instance only seven per cent and nine per cent of pupils in Western and Rift Valley counties respectively had sole use of mathematics textbooks. Interestingly many pupils in Kenya still go to school without exercise books, rulers or pencils.
“About 22 per cent of pupils go to school without all the three items that are necessary for effective participation in classroom activities,” says SACMEQ.
Although many schools in Kenya suffer from acute shortage of classrooms and learning resources, those shortcomings are compounded by limited access to basic services such as drinking water, toilets and electricity.
According to UNESCO, the absence of clean, safe and separate toilets for boys and girls tends to discourage children, particularly girls, from attending school regularly.
Yet, these shortages are the rule in most public primary schools in Kenya. Subsequently, if the country feels committed to meeting Education For All targets, then there is need for the government to address those barriers without delay.
