Government and Policy

Challenges And Inequities Affecting Learning – Usawa Agenda

BY Soko Directory Team · May 7, 2022 10:05 am

KEY POINTS

89 percent of parents with children in private ECDE centers in Nairobi's urban informal settlements are more engaged in their children's learning as compared to those in public centers (79 percent).

KEY TAKEAWAYS

54.8 percent of national schools reported instituting measures to protect victims/survivors of SGBV compared to 38.3 percent of sub-county schools. On average, 39.7 percent of surveyed schools reported instituting measures to protect victims or survivors of SGBV.

Usawa Agenda conducted a study on Early Childhood Development Education in Nairobi County. The reports aimed at understanding Whole child Development in the context of urban informal settings in Nairobi.

In total, 2072 centers were mapped across the 11 sub-counties in Nairobi and conducted a focused study on Whole Child Development. The report highlighted the various challenges and opportunities that exist for the ECDE actors as well as the government.

The report launched at LLA – National Museum of Kenya, indicated that 89 percent of parents with children in private ECDE centers in Nairobi’s urban informal settlements are more engaged in their children’s learning as compared to those in public centers (79 percent).

The study looked at the patterns of learning among ECDE centers regarding whole child development from the perspective of the ECDE center characteristics, teacher perspectives, and a parent or caregiver involvement in the growth and performance of children across various domains.

The study results indicated that 5 in every 6 children in the mapped centers attended private ECDEs. The private ECDE had enrolments of over 100,000 learners and thus fit a considerable supply gap left by the absence of inadequate public provision. The pupil-teacher ratio in public and private ECDEs was also low, with an average of 28.8 percent in public and 14 percent in private centers.

Further, it is evident that among the private ECDE centers, 66 percent are owned by individuals, 17 percent by the communities, and 18 percent by NGOs and FBOs. While all the public ECDEs are registered with the Ministry of Education, only half of the surveyed private centers were registered with the government.

In the domains tested, learners in assessed in either public or private centers both performed well generally. Learners performed well in the pre-numeracy activities, scoring over 90 percent of the tasks in this domain, except for puzzle completion, which stood at 59 percent. Other than pre-numeracy, the other domains did not differ significantly by school type. There were no gender differences in all the domains tested, including executive functioning, pre-numeracy, pre-literacy, social-emotional, self-awareness, and gross-motor.

In the 1^st National Secondary School Survey Report 2021, the spotlight turned on the inequities that disenfranchise millions of secondary school leavers by studying 339 secondary schools across the country. The report indicated that the secondary school category the learner attends contributes more to their KCSE grade than their entry (KCPE) marks. The findings affirmed that national school learners have access to more experienced and motivated school teachers and school managers than their counterparts in other cadres of schools.

While presenting the report, Dr. Emmanuel Manyasa, the Executive Director of Usawa Agenda, noted that secondary education is critical in the career paths that young Kenyans can take. “Today, many young Kenyans have studied hard to acquire university degrees but cannot be deployed at the same grade as their fellow university graduates because of their form four grade. That is how consequential achievement at the secondary school level is,” said Dr. Manyasa.

National schools have the highest percentage of Teacher’s Service Commission (TSC) members of staff (80.1 percent) and least percentages of Board of Management (17.2 percent) and intern (2.7 percent) members of staff. This significantly impacts learning, since a school with a high proportion of TSC-employed teachers has a more positive contribution to a learner’s KCSE grade.

The report also looked at various factors, including enrollment, how well secondary schools are equipped with learning resources, and health matters with a focus on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and teenage pregnancies and the return rates for girls. Surprisingly, of all schools surveyed, 54.8 percent of national schools reported instituting measures to protect victims/survivors of SGBV compared to 38.3 percent of sub-county schools. On average, 39.7 percent of surveyed schools reported instituting measures to protect victims or survivors of SGBV.

The stats of both the ECDE Report and the Secondary School Survey say a lot about the strides the country has made to ensure equitable access to education for all children. Different policies will continue to be implemented, but there is room for improvement. “Despite the in Kenya’s education sector over the years, there’s still sharp contrast between the education inputs and the learning outcomes. Children are in school but are not learning. We need to change this,” Dr. Manyasa concluded.

You can find copies of the two reports through this link.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system. Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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