IMPROVING ACCOUNTABILITY AND INTEGRITY IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR IN KENYA

As part of Hakijamii’s efforts to push for the realization of the right to basic education in informal settlements, the organization is engaging in trainings to enable community groups in informal settlements to make demands for integrity and accountability in the education sector with the aim of stamping out corruption. Two such activities were conducted on 8^th October 2011 at The Pumwani Social Hall and on 8^th November 2011 at the Makadara Mbotela hall.

The objectives of these sessions were to assist participants to understand and appreciate accountability and integrity both at the national and international levels;  identify accountability and integrity issues in the education sector at all levels and how they are currently being addressed at the community ,school management, Civil Society , Government and donor levels; identify gaps and opportunities for community groups to promote rules, accountability and enforcement systems that would  deal with malpractices in the management and administration  of education and to build consensus on specific recommendations(proposed rules, accountability measures and enforcement )

The participants developed clear recommendations aimed at improving accountability and integrity in primary school management. They resolved to undertake follow up measures that would promote accountability and integrity and reduce cases of corruption in the use of resource and school management. 

Participants who took part in the forums

HAKIJAMII AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS PRESENT PETITIONS TO THE EDUCATION REFORM TASK FORCE

As part of the continued commitment to ensure participation in the implementation of the Constitution, especially with regard to the progressive realization of economic and social rights, Hakijamii and its community partners presented written petitions to the Task Force that is reviewing education policies and laws to ensure that they comply with the new Constitution. In their petitions the focus was on the right to free and compulsory education as stipulated under article 53 of the Constitution. The petitions underscored the need to ensure that immediate steps are taken by the Government to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to free and compulsory primary education for all children because the right is immediate and is not subject to the requirement of progressive realization.

Download NPSN petition: NPSN RIGHT TO FREE BASIC EDUCATION PETITION

Download KISORA petition: KISORA EDUCATION ISSUES PETITION

Download Right to Basic Education Bill: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues: RIGHT TO BASIC EDUCATION Background

Download the Draft Education Bill: DRAFT RIGHT TO BASIC EDUCATION BILL, 2011-29 JUNE

Is the “Urban Education Advantage” in Kenya a Myth?

Pupils at a school in one of Nairobi's informal settlements.

For a long time now, the urban child has been considered to be more likely than a rural child to realize the dream of fully participating in school. This has mainly been attributed to what is commonly known as the “urban advantage”. This “urban advantage” is associated with increased access to facilities such as schools in urban areas.

Recent work documenting population health in urban and rural areas has begun to suggest that some sections of the urban population do not benefit from the “urban advantage”. For example, a child in an informal settlement (slum) of Nairobi is more likely to suffer from diarrhea than a child in rural Kenya. In addition, a child from the richest household in the slums is more likely to suffer from diarrhea than a child from the poorest family in rural Kenya.

Data from focus group discussions collected in the slums of Nairobi provide the context for discussion. The results suggest that school enrollment is higher in urban non-slum than in urban slum areas, and is higher in slums than in rural areas at younger ages. However, this is only true up to age 9 for females and 11 for males, from which school enrollment for slum children declines and the rate of decline is faster than among their rural counterparts.

The corresponding ages at which the enrollment among the rural children begins to visibly decline are 13 years for males and 14 years for females. Factors contributing to these results point to the poor quality of primary schools in slums, limited access to secondary school for slum children, disabling environment at home, increased child labor, and increased vulnerability to coercion into sexual activity and other ills that hinder school participation.

Author: Anne Aketch Ogada

National Public Education Rally Set for the 30Th of September, 2010

A group at a education meeting in Starehe constituency (district).

Hakijamii is currently facilitating meetings in all 8 of Nairobi’s constituencies (districts) to discuss, create awareness, and recruite members to advocate for the right to education in the people’s settlements (slums).  Education conveners are chairing the meetings and are planning a national public rally for the 30^th of September, 2010 to provide a platform from which communities from the people’s settlements can voice out education issues that they feel are being under addressed by the Government.

Disabled Children Are Equally Entitled To An Exciting And Brilliant Future

Free Primary Education was introduced for all in Kenya. It was a step in the right direction, but were all children taken into account when the program was introduced? Are the physically challenged able to access education in Kenya? Many parents or guardians with disabled children watch helplessly as they grow up having no hope for their future. The majority of children living with disabilities have not been able to go to schools that can meet their needs hence have been marginalized.

Disabled youth at a school for handicapped children in Kenya.

The focus in the education sector in Kenya has mostly been on “normal” children with very little attention being paid to those with special needs. Thousands of these children, especially those from poor families, do not have access to proper education either because disabilities prevent them from going to school or their families sideline them.

The obstacles hindering accessibility of education to the disabled stem from poor access to facilities, lack of transport, lack of funding, and unavailability of equipment such as children’s wheelchairs. A majority of these children come from informal settlements. Some require expensive daily medication that their unemployed parents/guardians cannot afford. One such parent is Beatrice Atieno Oginga who lives in Kibera settlement (slum), Nairobi with a mentally challenged child.

“My son Eric Ouma Oginga is 23 years old now and bringing him up to this age has not been easy.  I came to find out of his condition when he was only four years old. Since then he has been in and out of the hospital. He takes medication on a daily basis and is expected to do so for the rest of his life.

Eric is a pupil at Nakuru Hills Special School for the mentally handicapped. He started school at Jacaranda Special Day School, but I had to transfer him to a boarding school due to the expenses. He would commute daily to the school which meant I had to pay his bus fare every day and that became too expensive for me. Taking him to school has been very difficult especially since I am not employed and depend on odd jobs. His medication comes to about Ksh200 a day. I have to feed him as well which adds on to the many expenses. It used to be a bit easier when his father was alive since we could help each other.

There are many parents like me who want their disabled children to have a brilliant future, but do not have the facilities/resources. I wish the Government would assist us by making education accessible to our children. The Government needs to include special schools for such children, within the informal settlements, to enable them to live a normal life. We as parents try hard, but the expenses are too many and in most cases the children do not enroll in any school because their parents cannot afford it.”

Beatrice is just one of many parents struggling to put a disabled child through school. The Government needs to educate these children if they truly wish to achieve their goal of education for all. Several measures need to be put in place to ensure that the physically challenged are able to access and afford a proper education. The Government therefore must act to ensure that all Kenyan children, even those with disabilities, receive a primary education.

The People’s Budget

Since 2007, Nairobi People’s Settlement Network (NPSN), in collaboration with other community groups,* has been holding an annual forum led by residents of the people’s settlements (slums) to prioritize the people’s needs and make recommendations to the Kenyan government on how to allocate the national budget. According to the People’s Budget, “[t]he primary responsibility of the government is to respect, protect, promote and fulfill all human rights of its citizens. To achieve this… the government must [enact] appropriate laws and policies as well as provide money and resources to address the basic needs of its citizens.”

A government’s commitment to fulfill basic human rights is determined by how it allocates its resources (national budget).  It does not matter how just a constitution or laws are if the government does not provide the resources needed to put these laws into practice.  Every government disperses resources through its annual budget and through this budget it becomes clear whom and what are valued by the government. Therefore, it is the belief of residents of the people’s settlements that the budget is a highly effective tool in improving their standard of living and claiming their rights.

See the following video to learn more about the People’s Budget:

Before the People’s Budget, most residents of the settlements had no platform to make their priorities heard by the government.  The government would create the annual national budget with little input from the common Kenyan; projects that residents of the settlements found most essential to improving their quality of life were rarely funded. Nairobi People’s Settlement Network decided it was time for the people of the settlements to become more involved in the budgeting process and stop waiting for the government to solve their problems for them.

With the help of Hakijamii, residents of the settlements in Nairobi (and recently Kisumu) hold meetings to outline where the greatest need for government assistance lies within education, land and housing, food security, environment, economic and social empowerment, water and sanitation, health, and safety and security sectors.  For the national budget to be properly utilized all citizens of the country, not just government officials, should play an active role in budget formulation.  With input from the settlements the government can make a more informed decision on what, where and how money from the national budget should be spent.

Meetings have already begun in preparation for the next People’s Budget forum, scheduled for May of 2011.   It is a long and arduous process, but it is worth all the time and effort.  With the People’s Budget the residents of the settlements are one step closer to living a life with dignity.

*Though NPSN has been the most involved in the People’s Budget, other community groups have participated including Muungano Wa Wanavijiji, Kutoka Network and Kisumu Social Rights Association (KISORA).

Click Here To See The 2010 People's Budget

Author: Louis Rezac first posted on his Advocacy Project Blog

Kenya’s Free Primary Education

In 2003, the Kenyan government introduced Free Primary Education (FPE) for all. Since its inception, the number of students attending primary schools has significantly increased.  Statistical indicators show that the FPE initiative has brought some positive changes, but it is still beyond the reach of many Kenyan families to get a child through primary school.

The FPE program provides children with staffed public schools to attend as well as learning materials.  However, it does not supply them with a uniform, food, or transport to school.  These costs are to be paid by the student’s parents, many of whom live in the people’s settlements (slums) and make less than a dollar per day. Therefore, they cannot afford to send them to public school.

Olympic Primary is a public school in Kibera.

Though the Kenyan government has increased funding to the education sector (to 17% of the national budget), it is beyond the scope of the budget to provide free primary education to all. Many international donors were assisting the government in supporting the initiative, but in 2009 an audit revealed that 1 million USD in grant money was missing and 26 million USD had been diverted from the education fund. Due to this incident, many international agencies (World Bank, Canada, UK and USAID) have suspended funding.

Although free primary education has provided children from the poorer areas of society with hope, it has also created significant problems. Rapid expansion of enrollment has drastically increased the student to teacher ratio, causing the quality of education to suffer. Statistics have shown that although there is an increase in the number of students taking the exam to get their Certificate of Primary Education the percentage of students that pass the exam has decreased.

As a result of the poor quality of education the number of private schools in Kenya is almost 10 times greater than before the FPE initiative started. Many people who would normally send their children to public schools have been forced towards private schools because of overcrowding.  Private schools in Kenya are no longer just for the rich. There are now private schools catering toward people of all social and economic backgrounds.

Informal School in Kibera

In the people’s settlements many families send their children to private informal schools funded by NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). These informal schools provide children who cannot afford to buy uniforms or pay for transport to a public school a place to learn.  Most of these informal schools don’t have electricity, running water, or sanitary bathrooms, but at least the children are given a chance to learn.

To improve education in the people’s settlements of Nairobi, NPSN (Nairobi People’s Settlement Network), with the help of Hakijamii, has brought together educational groups from each of the 8 constituencies (districts). These groups come together to discuss ways to provide a better education for their children.

In June 2010 NPSN held Education Accountability meetings in each of the 8 constituencies, where members of the communities, teachers, and government officials came together to discuss the state of education in the settlements. Government officials explained the application process for funds allocated for poor and disadvantaged youth.  After, members of the community asked questions directly to the officials and made suggestions for improvement of the process. With these sessions community members hope that the government will listen and utilize their suggestions. A member of NPSN said that before the network was formed it was impossible for the community to have a conversation with a government official. Now that they have unified government officials will take the time to come and listen to their ideas.

Starehe District Education Officer Mr. J. Muchiri Ndung'u. One of the government officials attending the Education Accountability Meeting.

The problems with FPE in Kenya are many, but the initiative is a step in the right direction.  There needs to be an unbiased private firm doing the monitoring and evaluations to combat corruption and ensure that allocated funds go to free primary education.  The government also needs to maintain a dialogue with groups at the grassroots level to better be able to meet the needs of the common Kenyan.  If they manage to do these things I am hopeful that someday there will be free primary education for all.

Author: Louis Rezac first posted on his Advocacy Project Blog