Kenya ranks highly with children not in school, says UN report

The number of children out of school has reduced by half to one million since 1999, the annual Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report states. Photo/FILE

What you need to know:

  • Nigeria leads the list with 10.5 million children not attending school
  • Kenya is in the ninth position after Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Morocco and Ghana

Kenya is among 10 countries in the world with the highest number of children not enrolled in school, a United Nations report to be launched on Wednesday says.

But the number of children out of school has reduced by half to one million since 1999, the annual Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report states.

Nigeria leads the list with 10.5 million children not attending school, while Kenya is in the ninth position after Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Morocco and Ghana.

Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo alongside his Higher Education counterpart Margaret Kamar and Ababu Namwamba (Sports) will officially launch the report at Hilton Hotel in Nairobi.

The children who are out of school are working, employed in low-paid jobs, often to supplement the income of their families.

However, Kenya is edging closer to meeting Education For All Goals, three years to the 2015 deadline with nearly 10 million children enrolled under the free education plan.

But the “primary school education is not of sufficient quality to ensure that all children can learn all the basics,” the report says.

Six per cent of the young men (15- 29 years) who had left school are illiterate and 26 per cent semi-illiterate. Women are worse off.

“Even in countries that have made good progress towards Universal Primary Education, some groups continue to be left behind, and so targeted policies are needed to reach them” says the report.

But it notes that Kenya and Tanzania have achieved major breakthroughs due to expansion on education spending contributed to achieving almost universal school enrolment.

This year’s report links education (training) to the skills that are required in the job market to improve the economy of a country.

It notes that the long-term effects of neglecting investments in education leave a huge skills deficit among the people.

“The consequences of such low levels of education are grim for the young people... Many youth will be consigned to poorly paid, insecure and often risky work, and their countries will be deprived of the kind of skills that can drive economic growth,” says the report.

It adds: “ensuring that all young people achieve at least a good primary and secondary education is vital to give countries the skilled workforce they need to realize the demographic dividend for development.”

In Kenya the report notes that 1.8 million people live in the slums with a third of them being the youth who have no secondary education and lack training in a trade or skills to earn an income.

“Of those who are employed, 60 per cent of the men and women (40 per cent) are in casual employment earning only around the poverty line,” says the report.

At the same time, gaps between rich and poor tend to widen as children get older, often because those from disadvantaged backgrounds increasingly need to contribute to household income.

In some countries, including Colombia and Vietnam, the report notes almost all children go to primary school.

But while most young people from rich households make it to lower secondary school, only around two-thirds from poor households do in Vietnam, and around half in Colombia.

The report however notes that Kenya has shown a strong commitment to financing education.

“The economic downturn does not seem to have adversely affected the education spending,” it says as seven per cent of the country’s budget is spent on education.