NN40, May 2008
Education for Sustainable Development? Or The Sustainability of Education Investment? A Special Issue
Universalising Primary Education in Kenya: Is it Beneficial and Sustainable?
By Nobuhide Sawamura , CICE Hiroshima University
Email: nsawamur@hiroshima-u.ac.jpKeywords
UPE, Kenya
Summary
In Kenya the introduction of free primary education in 2003 led to dramatic increases in primary enrolment and much of this expansion is to be financed through external development assistance. This article examines whether this is an achievement or a crisis and argues that there is little concern about becoming aid-dependent and about sustainable development.
Universal Primary Education (UPE) is an international development goal which all countries are expected to achieve by the year 2015. In Kenya, reintroduction of free primary education in 2003 dramatically increased the number of children attending school. However, how much benefit will each child get? The quality of education appears to have deteriorated and the educational background of primary school completion has already contributed little to becoming employed. Article I of the World Declaration on Education for All clearly states that ?Every person??child, youth and adult??shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs?, focusing on value, significance, and effects of education for individuals. Although everybody recognises the importance of quality of education in policy, few ever paid serious attention to it as an urgent problem on the ground or took measures to restrain the rapid quantitative expansion.
1. Realities of Free Primary Education
Before and after implementation of free primary education in January 2003, the number of primary school pupils all over Kenya increased by 18%; from 6,063,000 pupils in 2002 to 7,160,000 pupils in 2003. Is this an achievement or a crisis? It is schools that suffer because they did not intentionally increase the number of children attending school? For example, the following problems have arisen:
1) A rapid increase in the number of pupils makes teaching and learning difficult;
2) Some parents became reluctant to support school activities, because education is free; and
3) Grants from the government are not distributed when schools need funds, nor is the amount sufficient.
The situation of free education seems fair in terms of access to educational opportunities. Comparison of the quality of available education, however, reveals that not all children are guaranteed the same standard of education. Marked disparities are apparent in the quality of education among public schools: there are unequal situations in which available education depends on the parents? economic situation. To enrol in a school which can guarantee the quality of education, will require additional expenditures.
It is difficult to implement challenges for UPE continuously, including free education, using only the Kenyan government?s own resources. They intend to depend mainly on aid from external agencies termed ?development partners?. The rhetoric of ?partnerships? rather than ?self-help efforts? may have been widely accepted. Increasing the number of children attending schools has become the main target; apparently, little consideration is given to deprived children, who should be benefited, and to schools accepting new children. There is little concern either about becoming aid-dependent or about sustainable development.
2. Connection of Primary Education to Secondary Education
The actually pursued educational goals differ from ?education? conceptualised in terms of ?basic learning needs? or ?children?s rights?. Rather, primary schools are committed to learning for transition to secondary school, and more specifically, how to score highly in the primary school leaving examination. Consequently, schooling influenced by such an examination system automatically comes to resemble preparatory schools for scoring highly on tests. The current policy to raise the transition rates to secondary education may accelerate the so-called Diploma Disease and foster the possibility of further increasing unemployed people with high educational background.
Secondary schooling is not free. School enrolment rates in secondary education therefore decline according to a direct relation to family income. Children know well that educational opportunities are easily closed without funds and this reality discourages them. Improvement in transition rates from primary school to secondary school is a crucial issue for the government. They have set a target of achieving a transition rate of 70% from primary to secondary school. But the actual ?transition rate? to secondary education is as low as 45% even if an ?admission rate? is 60% (2005/06). That is, 25% of those who gained admission were obliged to decline enrolment.
Parents or relatives often bear the burden of tuition fees for secondary education. Consequently, they often expect that children should be in regular work to earn cash. Even in the rural areas there is enthusiastic aspiration for secondary school particularly among Standard 8 pupils, but many of them cannot proceed to secondary school, and consequently they stop learning at the primary school stage and often stay in the community.
3. Roles of Primary Schools in the Community
What are the roles of primary education? Although primary schools as a social safety net and nursery might not be well accepted, the roles cannot be ignored from the standpoint of the parents in the rural community. Attending school serves a role as a social safety net to protect children, even if teachers are prone to be absent and cannot improve learning effects. Even if teachers are strict, schools are a place to guarantee life as a child, where children are set free from domestic labours to spend time with friends. With no other social welfare facilities, such roles ought to be required.
It is a reality that most primary school graduates return to the community and spend the rest of their lives there. More attention must be devoted to how primary schools might better serve the needs of children and parents. They could be a driving force for changing communities and improving residents? lives. Previously, we have devoted attention to the quantitative expansion of primary education for the nation. Now might be the time to discuss the qualitative importance of primary education for personal growth and for the rural community. We would be better to take a much greater interest not only in the ?quantitative growth of education? but also in the development of communities based on the ?qualitative growth of individuals? through primary schooling. Such emphasis must surely engender sustainable educational development.
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