Report details pain of school children in Korogocho slums

A section of Korogocho slums in Eastlands. [Immaculate Akello, Standard]

One in every four children living in Nairobi’s urban informal settlements has lost a parent, a new report has revealed.

This ratio is even higher in Korogocho slums where almost one in every three children has lost a parent.

Some 81 per cent of the children under the age of 13 have lost their fathers. Eight per cent have lost their mothers while 11 per cent are orphans.

The shocking statistics are contained in a report conducted by Advancing Learning Outcomes for Transformational Change (ALOT-Change) and African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC).

The study was aimed at increasing efforts towards securing the future of boys and girls aged between 12 and19 living in urban informal settlements and was conducted in Korogocho and Viwandani slums.

The report suggests that children in informal settlements face unique challenges because the physical and socio-economic conditions of where they live pose significant threats to positive outcomes.

“There is a large proportion of orphans, meaning that many children have been left to fend for themselves,” says the study.

Grade repetition

According to the study, pupils living in slums reported 27 per cent grade repetition, with the number increasing in public schools.

At the same time, pupils studying in Government schools reported 31 per cent grade repetition, while those in low-fee private schools registered 25 per cent likelihood to repeat a class.

“Excessive grade repetition in both sites may have resulted in children being too old for their class at higher levels of schooling. High absenteeism rates were also reported,” states the study.

The excessive grade repetition was attributed to absenteeism of students.

In Viwandani, the main reasons for absenteeism were bad weather and illness. In Korogocho, reasons for absenteeism included illness, lack of school fees, family reasons and work-related activities.

Overall, illness, which was the most frequently reported, accounted for 36 per cent of school absenteeism. School fees accounted for 16.5 per cent.

Korogocho reported a higher number of students being absent due to lack of school fees at 17.5 per cent compared to Viwandani at 14.5 per cent.

Self-reported school absenteeism at least once a week in Korogocho stood at 19.4 per cent while Viwandani reported 11.5 per cent.

In Korogocho, 14 out of 45 pupils said they had to stay at home for family reasons, while only six in Viwandani stayed home for the same reason.

Caring for young ones

Specifically, family reasons included taking care of sick ones or young siblings, and household chores or even death within the family.

Respondents from Korogocho reported having a significantly higher number of siblings. On average, a girl or a boy in Korogocho reported having four siblings, of which about 46 per cent were enrolled in primary school. Some were forced to stay at home and take care of their younger ones.

Another indicator pointed out in the research is that a pupil in Korogocho slum is likely to take almost two years longer to finish school compared to pupils living in Viwandani slums who is likely to take a year longer than those living in formal settlements.

For instance, according to Ministry of Health, most pupils in Standard Six are averagely 11 years old. However, the average age of pupils in the same class living in Viwandani is 12 and 13 for those living in Korogocho.

These challenges notwithstanding, children reported receiving extra tuition to help them catch up with their studies, the use of English at home and parents’ ability to provide homework support, all of which boost chances of doing well at school.

Parental monitoring

Moreover, high aspirations on the part of parents and the children themselves for their progression through the schooling system, particularly in Korogocho, as well as parental monitoring and involvement in their children’s education (which was higher in Viwandani) encourage better schooling performance and deter adolescents from engaging in delinquent behaviour.

These findings suggest that although the components of the intervention, which are concerned with homework support and parental monitoring and involvement, are likely to attract high levels of support from the parents of the pupils involved in the study, the differences observed in each site need to be taken into consideration.

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