Facilities and Resources to Support Enrolment of Children from Pastoral Communities in Kajiado County

Abstract

Kenya’s Education has performed relatively well against most of the education performance indicators set to achieve Education for All (EFA), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets and the Education for Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) in the last decade. Kenya’s primary school Net Enrolment Rates increased from 80.3% in 2003 to 91.1% in 2016.  Gender parity in access also improved at primary level, increasing from 0.95 in 2005 to stabilize at 0.97 (2016). The education sector is faced with regional and gender disparities in most of the education performance indicators with Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) counties registering the lowest performances. Majority of the ASAL Counties have continued to register a Net Enrolment Rate of below 50%; against the best performing county of that posted NER of 107.5% (2016). The county of Kajiado had a NER of 79.1% in 2016 which is below the national average of 91.1%. There was, therefore, need to evaluate the LCBPs program in Kajiado County to propose strategies that respond to the educational needs for Nomadic-pastoral communities. The Government of Kenya established low-cost boarding primary schools (LCBPs in the ASAL regions and pledged to provide boarding facilities, food items and all other supplies while the parents provide students personal effects to operationalize the LCBPs initiative. Eleven (11) of the (392) Kenya’s LCBPs were in Kajiado County with an enrollment of 4,176 in 2016 and were under enrolled by the national standards. This process evaluation of the LCBPs used Sequential Mixed method, cross sectional and a case study designs. The sample of the study was drawn from all pupils, teachers, and head teachers in low-cost boarding primary schools in Kajiado County. Education officials and representatives of development partners supporting provision of education in Kajiado County provided useful information. Data was collected using questionnaires, interview schedules as well as observation of facilities. The findings of the evaluation established that LCBPs their present form did not respond to the educational needs of the nomadic and pastoral communities of Kajiado County. Most of the schools were under-enrolled, underfunded, had inadequate facilities, understaffed with teachers and other support staff. The food served was of low quality and inadequate. This study recommends review the concept of LCBPs, with a view to establishment of LCBPs institutional framework paying special attention to the development of financing foundation guided by a rationalized unit cost of maintaining a child in the school.

Keywords: Facilities, Resources, Support, Enrolment, Children, Pastotal, Communities, Kajiado, Kenya.