7:26:43 PM
10/17/2017
Achieving Universal Basic Education in Kenya
Article 43 1(f) of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 provides that every person has a right to education. The basic Education Act 2013 defines basic education as follows:
“educational programmes which includes Adult education and education offered in pre-primary educational institutions and centres.”
Free Primary Education was introduced in Kenya in 2003 by the then ruling National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). This was in response to the call by Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) number 2 which called for attaining universal primary education. A lot has been achieved since then. For instance, the transition rate was 60.4% in 2012 and in 2016 it had reached 81.3%. This means that 20 percent of pupils who sat for their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) never met it to high school. This is a wasted investment which the national government wants to reduce by achieving 100% transition rate. The first cohort of students who benefited from free primary education in 2003 are now pursuing their tertiary education.
Starting from FY 2017/2018 and beyond, the country aims at attaining 100% transition rate. In FY 2017/2018, primary education was allocated Ksh. 21.4 billion while secondary education was allocated Ksh. 35.6 billion. The State Department for Basic Education is currently supporting 9.2 million pupils under the Free Primary Education and 2.8 million others under Subsidized Day Secondary Education.
Currently, a number of activities are going on such as curriculum reform and review; infrastructure improvement in primary, secondary and teachers training colleges and support to special needs education.
Pupil-Teacher ratio in Kenya
The lower the students to teacher ratio, the better. This has an impact on the availability of teachers to attend to their students’ needs and then workload is not punitive. The international standards provides 39 as the best ratio in this respect. This means that a standard class should have 39 students in each class. This ratio applies to both private and public schools.
In 2013 Kenya’s students to teachers ratio stood at 51 pupils per teacher but this ratio had reduced marginally to 47 by 2016. This is a clear indicator that there still is a shortage of teachers in Kenya.
The government of Kenya is planning to recruit 5,000 new teachers in FY 2017/2018 in her efforts to address the teacher shortage. This will be at a cost of Ksh. 2 billion.
High Education Loans Board (HELB)
The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has been allocated Ksh. 10.1 billion in FY 2017/2018. HELB is facing challenges such as unpaid debts by previous beneficiaries. The agency has put in place a number of strategies to recover their money. For instance, all people applying for public jobs in Kenya are required by law to provide HELB clearance as part of the application process. Further, employers are required to deduct certain amount of amount of money and remit it to the board on a monthly basis.
Resources
Kenya Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO): Budget Watch 2017
Follow us on Twitter @kerosiT
