Today there are 16 million girls around the world who will never start school. For both girls and boys globally, there are 124 million children and young adults who are not in school. Unfortunately, universal access to primary education is still an aspiration, and many children will not gain this advantage, which is crucial for breaking out of the cycle of poverty. Children who go to school have broader future employment opportunities, higher income levels, and maternal and child health are improved. Education creates a win-win situation.
The Ndeini Primary School is located in Kibwezi a town in Makueni County in Kenya that suffers from severe drought as rain only comes once a year. The school provides access to education to some of the poorest children in the area, many of whom are orphans. The Edmund Rice Advocacy Network (ERAN) has been instrumental in ensuring students receive a nutritious meal every day in school by mobilising parents of students to contribute maize and beans, and fulfilling shortfalls of supplies for students whose families cannot afford the extra expense.
“ERAN was born in this school, and the school community was spearheaded by James M. Mutua who formerly was working at the Reuben Centre in the Mukuru kwa Njenga i slum in Nairobi. After he was posted to our school he sought permission to introduce ERAN activities,” says Head Teacher Michael Mutsiya, “many changes have taken place after the introduction of ERAN. So far children have been educated about their rights.”
“Early marriages, assaults, and child neglect were evident years before ERAN activities but now they are unheard of. ERAN Children’s Camps have been the most enjoyable in the school. Children have learnt many artistic skills, games, songs, and drama. Resulting in the improvement of the standards of education.”
Development work alone is not enough to achieve the systemic change needed to destroy poverty. The Christian Brothers understood this in 2008 when they created ERAN to engage in advocacy work as a strategy for addressing systemic, and structural injustice, which they believe are the root causes of poverty and injustice. To this end, ERAN works with the United Nations Human Rights Council through the Universal Periodic Review; the Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to promote public accountability, and pro-poor frameworks and programmes.
Through a variety of activities like the ERAN Camps systemic change in the Ndeini Primary School has taken place. These camps have been instrumental in changing the strict discipline culture in the school. Staff and students collaborated to come up with a fun way to reinforce positive discipline after exam time with students dressing each other up with exam papers. This has now become a rite of passage for students, and happy way to signal the end of the year, and to look forward to the next term.
Kenya is a country of many contrasts, from its landscape to demographics, and more so its social and economic inequalities. Many of the students in the Ndeini Primary School go to school barefoot. Kenya is one of the most unequal countries in the sub-region. A study by the Institute for Security Studies found that 18.4 million Kenyans out of a population of 46.3 million live in extreme poverty.
The Ndeini Primary School provides practical classes like Environmental Studies to teach students skills that they can take home. ERAN has provided fruit trees to plant around the school grounds, which offer additional food for students, and large rain water collection tanks to water the trees as the local water is not good for plants.
In 2013, President Kenyatta launched the Basic Education Act, which provides a road map for the development of education in the country. This has been accompanied by an increase in the state budgetary allocation for secondary schools by 33%. Consequently, the Free Primary Education programme has expanded enrolment from 5.9 million children in 2003 to 10 million today. Since its inception in 2008, free (day) secondary education has raised enrolment from 800,000 pupils to the current figure of nearly two million.
An extra 79,000 teachers are needed to reach the United Nations globally recommended teacher-to-student ratio of one teacher to 35 students. The minimum monthly wage for state school teachers currently starts at 16,692 Kenyan shillings (approximately €158) a month for the lowest paid teachers. This teacher shortfall, coupled with poor or non-existent facilities, inadequate learning materials, and ineffective ways to measure learning outcomes, results in low quality education in many of Kenya’s public schools.
The Kenyan Government is working with schools like the Ndeini Primary School to address some of these challenges. Head Teacher Michael Mutsiya has been lobbying and working with the school’s administration for additional resources and support from the government. Through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), the government is adding three new classrooms to the school.
Although the Kenyan Government has stepped up to the challenge of providing some funding for education, the main financial partners continue to be the parents and guardians of students, and NGOs. In the future if access to education in Kenya will truly be universal then the Government will have to focus on sustainable strategies of funding.
Read the original article in the June 2016 issue of Justice Magazine, pages 34 -35.
Photo Caption: Pupils at Ndeini Primary School during end of term exams. The school is located in Kibwezi a town in Makueni County that suffers from severe drought as rain only comes once a year. The school provides access to education to some of the poorest children in the area, many of whom are orphans. Photo: Lar Boland.
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