Adult education: A brave step worth the effort

Learners, under the adult education programme, sit for a Mathematics exam during the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education at Uasin Gishu Primary School in Eldoret Town on November 10, 2009. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Early pregnancy for women and expulsion from school are the other reasons that push adults back to class.
  • Unesco recognises literacy as a fundamental human right, and the foundation for lifelong learning.
  • According to a Unesco report in 2007, 61.5 per cent of Kenyans had attained the minimum literacy level.

In years gone by, education was almost a certain ticket to economic prosperity.

Today, however, it has become a requisite ingredient for survival, without which life is unbearable.

This has pushed thousands of learners back to class; some to redeem their social standing, and others to seek a plank for better fortunes.

EXPULSION FROM SCHOOL
Whereas some people join centres of adult education to begin their studies from the most basic level, others go back to school after recovering from financial difficulties that may have elbowed them out of school.

Below par performance in a previous attempt in national exams, early pregnancy for women and expulsion from school are the other reasons that push adults back to class.

The Ministry of Education recognises Basic Adult Education (BAE) as an important component of Adult Continuing Education (ACE), which provides basic education and training opportunities to adults, and youth of 15 years and above who are out of school who either missed their chances in the formal education system during their childhood, or dropped out of school before attaining sustainable levels of education.

FAMILY/CLASS BALANCE
Adult education, on the surface of it, may sound as a comfortable go.

In truth, however, the programme comes with a myriad of limitations, including underfunding, poor state of learning infrastructure and the high cost involved.

For those with family, navigating the near-impossible balance of finding time for family and academic pursuits becomes a necessity.

Four adults talk about the setbacks they have had to contend with in their pursuit of education.

Amina Fwaleh was only 17 years old when she dropped out of school in Form Two and got married.

For nine years, she was a mother and wife. The title of student had long been forgotten.

Students assemble at Moi University on December 16, 2016 for their graduation. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

But not her dream of working as a finance officer in the corporate sphere.

“In 2000, then 26, I pulled myself together and set off to look for a school to take over from where I had left. With a husband and two children to look after, it was a tough call. For weeks, I crisscrossed the city without luck,” says Amina, who was then expecting her third child.

CLASS TIME
She eventually found a college in Nairobi that offered adult education.

Temple College offered the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), curriculum.

“My biggest challenge here was having to put on uniform like the other students since this was something I was doing secretly. Apart from my husband who knew, no one else did. My in-laws would have been particularly aggravated had they found out,” she says.

The timing of lessons was strenuous - Amina adds.

“The school programme ran from 8am to 4pm, but I could only afford three hours so that I could attend to my family.”

PHD COURSE
Through sheer determination, she managed to finish her studies and enrolled for a diploma course in Finance and Human Resource Management at Valley Business School.

Hard on the heels of her diploma came her undergraduate degree at the University of Nairobi.

“At this point, I had to tell my in-laws, and thankfully, I had my husband’s support.”

Now 43 years, Amina is currently undertaking a PhD in Finance.

“The level of education is what ultimately matters in life. Besides the general challenges that the education sector faces, society should stop stigmatising older people who go back to school. The age of the student does not matter,” Amina maintains.

She adds, “Lack of awareness on the existence of institutions for adult education is a hindrance to enrolment by interested candidates. Operators of these centres should also operate above board to make the programme desirable.”

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SHEILA WANJIRU
Sheila’s secondary education was cast in jeopardy when her parents separated months before she joined high school in 2006.

Her uncle intervened and offered to support her, but rescinded his decision a term later, forcing Wanjiru to drop out of school in the second term.

Wanjiru’s mother sued her husband for the upkeep of their two daughters, but the effort bore no fruit.

Four years later when her former classmates completed high school, the little faith she had been fanning that she would resume her studies dissipated.

SCHOOL FEES
In 2011, in spite of the financial woes they were facing, Wanjiru was admitted at Westminster School in Nairobi for adult education.

She recounts, “This was my last resort. It is a different system from the regular programme. Level One combines Form One and Form Two syllabuses,” she explains.

“I would often be summoned to the principal’s office due to my huge fees arrears. I had barely cleared my balance for level one and was halfway into Level Two.

"The school could not bear my burden anymore. How I wished there was a fund for adult learners... I was sent home.” Thus the young woman’s dream dissolved.

For two years, Wanjiru did menial jobs in what she describes a useless attempt to raise money for her education.

“I was so determined that I did not mind even washing clothes for neighbours,” she says.

Learners, under the adult education programme, sit for a Mathematics exam during the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education at Uasin Gishu Primary School in Eldoret Town on November 10, 2009. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
By 2015, her mother had saved some money working as a casual labourer for a paints company.

Wanjiru joined New George’s School in Nairobi. All this while, none of her kin nor friends knew that she was attending adult classes.

“It was embarrassing for me since all my friends were now in college,” she explains.

She sat her KCSE exams in 2015 and scored a C- (minus). She now has her certificate.

For a year now, Wanjiru has been working as a brand ambassador for promotional companies, and saving for her undergraduate studies.

“I intend to pursue a business administration degree at Zetech University,” she says.

Her father’s refusal to educate her put her teenage life through unspeakable turbulence, but Wanjiru refused to let the disarray wreck her ambition.

“My colleagues may have moved many strides ahead of me, but I hope to recover the lost ground step by step,” Wanjiru says with an air of self-assuredness.

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ABEL MUSA
In the dead of night, when everyone in his household is sound asleep, Abel, who lives in Mathare North Estate, quietly studies in the living room.

Musa, 29, is a father of three children, and works as a security guard at a local beer company.

He conceived the idea of going back to school after noticing the fast-changing fortunes of a former colleague.

“I had worked with him for three years, but I was curious when he suddenly resigned and joined a rival beer company as a clerk.

"Within a short time, his life had dramatically improved. When I enquired how he had managed that, he confided in me that he had had to go back to high school.”

Mr Abel Musa, 29, responds to questions during an interview at Nation Centre on April 12, 2017. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

STUDY TIME

As enviable as his friend’s new status was, Musa, who had scored a C grade in his first stab at KCSE in 2007, faced an impediment.

“With rent to pay, five mouths to feed and school fees to pay, resigning from my job would have been a foolhardy move. I had to invent a way to accomplish my plan, only I did not know how to go about it.”

But he was determined to fulfil his lifelong dream of becoming a mechanical engineer, so after pondering for weeks, he decided to register for the 2017 KCSE exam as a private candidate, 10 years on.

“Ideally, I am supposed to work for eight hours, but sometimes I work for up to twelve hours for five days every week. I get home extremely exhausted.

"I must spend time with my children, and assist my eldest son, a KCPE candidate this year, with his homework. I also have to spare time to read, four hours every night.”

PERSONAL PRIDE
It took Musa time and even more courage to disclose his newfound engagement to his wife.

“I did not want my decision to create tension, the last thing I wanted her to feel was that my focus had shifted to my education, such that I would neglect my responsibilities.”

Musa, however, is not studying to be employed as an engineer, but to earn the title that he strove so hard to attain.

“As you grow older, the focus shifts from yourself to the family. I now have my elder son’s education and future to worry about. I only want to earn the degree for personal pride, and for fulfilment,” he says.

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BONIFACE JUMA

His academic miseries started when the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) withheld his school’s results after their 2002 KCSE exams.

It took the intervention of the then area MP, the late Orwa Ojode, to have the school’s results released.

Juma had scored a D plain. But he was determined to study nursing.

“I got a job as a cleaner in Kisumu where I worked for three years. I moved to Nairobi in search of a better life, since the cleaning job could not sufficiently provide for my needs.

"When I moved to the city, I found a job as a casual labourer at a local manufacturing company.”

Boniface Juma,32, speaks during an interview with Daily Nation at Nation Centre on April 12, 2017. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP


Even after working for three years, Juma says that he was unable to save enough money to study even a certificate course.

LEVEL ONE STUDIES

In fact, he was barely getting enough for his own sustenance.

Setting foot in a nursing class now hang by the thread of his fast-shrinking hope.

Juma had to make a gamble. “In 2015, I applied for the night shift at work, and joined an adults’ school to start my Level One studies. Through a big struggle, I was able to finish in 2016.

"I found it embarrassing sitting in the same class with students 17 years younger than me, and could not even bring myself to consult them. I felt out of place.”

TIME MANAGEMENT
Spending the day in school and the night at work was exhausting, but he had no intention to surrender.

“My nursing dream was exclusively dependent on my persistence. Sometimes I would fall asleep in class, something that irritated my supervisor - it was a tormenting two years.”

For someone who circumstances have imposed numerous struggles, almost wrecking his dream of getting an honourable secondary certificate, Juma advises against wastage of time.

“As a young student, you are free from many distractions, so make the most of your time in school because a second chance to redeem oneself comes with a host of challenges.”

Juma who scored a C- (minus) hopes to get a scholarship to keep his dream of working as a nurse alive.

LOW PAY

Unlike in other sectors of education, adult education in Kenya lacks a framework that specifically addresses allocation of teachers to centres offering this programme, causing a serious human resource crisis.

“Teachers in these institutions are mostly volunteers, or people working elsewhere who teach on a part-time basis,” says Richard Oyier, a lecturer who co-owns New Georges, a school for adults in Nairobi’s Tom Mboya Street.

According to Oyier, the wages for the service is far from attractive for teachers and other volunteers.

“There are some state-sponsored centres for adult education where teachers get a meagre monthly stipend of Sh2,000. Unless you have an extra source of income, this amount cannot cater for your needs.

Loise Mundia, 37, a student at Nyeri Adult Education Centre, studies on October 7, 2010. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

LACK OF MORALE
Most teachers are on and off class, trying to make a livelihood elsewhere.

I do not know of an adult centre that has permanent teaching staff.”

Oyier adds, “Teachers’ absenteeism or lateness due to low morale eventually affects learners’ enthusiasm.

"Adults are very impatient, so the moment they feel that they are being short-changed, they will leave and search for other schools where they can be attended to regularly.”

Kenya has not developed content exclusively for use by adult learners, laments Oyier.

“The needs of adult learners differ from those of regular learners. The curriculum should be designed to suit their unique needs.”

INADEQUATE FUNDING
Furthermore, statistics on the country’s current literacy position are sparse and unreliable.

Neither does the scarcity of available data act as motivation for the government’s increased funding for this programme nor as a catalyst for the donor community to chip in to salvage it.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) standard for literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts.

Unesco recognises literacy as a fundamental human right, and the foundation for lifelong learning.

LITERACY LEVELS
According to a Unesco report in 2007, 61.5 per cent of Kenyans had attained the minimum literacy level.

The report indicated that 38.5 per cent or 7.8 million of Kenyans were absolutely illiterate.

Out of the literate, only a paltry 29 per cent of Kenyans had achieved mastery in literacy and numeracy.

The report further showed that 49 per cent of Kenyan adults of between 45-49 years at the time were totally illiterate.

Since independence, the Kenya government has demonstrated its willingness to increase literacy levels among Kenyans.

In 1966, the Board of Adult Education was formed through an Act of Parliament, and tasked with the coordination, regulation and offering advisory services to the government on adult continuing education in the country.

SURGE IN ENROLMENT

One of the functions of the board is to advise the government on the modalities of provision and method of awarding bursaries and scholarships to adult learners.

In 1979, the Department of Adult Education in Kenya was first established and placed under the Ministry of Culture and Social Services. The aim was to spearhead a national literacy programme.

However, in 2002, the adult education programme was transferred to the Ministry of Education, a move that triggered a surge in enrolment for people who wanted to pursue this form of education.

In 2007 for instance, the number of learners in centres for adult education across the country was 250, 000, a number that gradually increased to 291, 000 learners in 2012.

DONORS
In 2013, the Basic Education Act was enacted with the primary role of guiding the delivery of basic education in Kenya; pre-primary education, primary, secondary, special needs education and adult continuing education (ACE).

Structurally, adult education is not the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, and therefore funding for this programme is not catered for in the ministry’s budget.

From 2005 however, the Department of Adult Education has been receiving funds from the ministry of Education through the Kenya Education Sector Support Programme (KESSP).

This leaves non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Community-based Organisations (CBOs) and donors to fund the programme.

Nairobi’s St Claver’s School is one of the few adult education institutions in the country that are supported by the government.