The Ministry of Education and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) yesterday launched a three-year programme to bring back to school at least 250,000 children in the country.
The programme, which began in January this year, is targets children aged six to 13 years in Baringo, Garissa, Isiolo, Kajiado, Kilifi, Kwale, Mandera, Marsabit, Narok, Samburu, Tana River, Turkana, Wajir, West Pokot, Bungoma and informal settlements in Nairobi.
This is the second phase of “Operation Come-to-School” . The first phase ran between 2015 and 2019 in 11 counties and saw the enrolment of almost 350,000 school children.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said parents and caregivers must ensure all schoolgoing children access, transit and complete education at all levels.
“It is quite sad from the statistics that some counties in Asals (arid and semi-arid lands) are leading with high numbers of out-of-school children,” he said in a speech read on his behalf by Curriculum Reforms Principal Secretary Prof Fatuma Chege.
Prof Magoha said parents and other stakeholders must embrace the National Re-entry Guidelines to ensure all children go back to school.
Covid-19
Unicef Representative in Kenya Maniza Zaman noted: “All children have the right to an education, but for many children in Kenya, Covid-19 and drought are making this an ever more distant dream.”
Also launched at the event was the National Out of School Children Study Report undertaken by Unesco and a baseline survey report by the National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (Naconek).
According to the baseline report, majority of the out-of-school children are found in Mandera (170,050), Garissa (166,010), Wajir (152,130) and Turkana (144,520) counties, with Mandera and Kwale having higher a percentage of out-of-school boys compared to girls. Tana River, Bungoma and Kilifi counties have the lowest number of out-of-school children.
Naconek CEO Harun Yussuf said: “Societal involvement and improvement of livelihoods, among other interventions will be key in realising the objective.”
The Naconek survey report found that pregnancy, child marriage, being orphans and child labour are the primary reasons children leave school.