Garissa, Mandera, Nairobi with most children out of school: report

Six out of 10 children who are out of school in Kenya come from poor families, a study by United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has revealed.

The report ‘Out of School Children Situation in Kenya’ indicates that a total of 852,000 children aged between 6 and 17 years are still out of school with Mandera County being the most affected.

“Mandera, has a staggering 124,800 children out of school, accounting for almost 15 per cent of the young population. The situation in Garissa, Wajir and Turkana is not much better with 6.7 per cent, 8.9 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively of children not attending school,” states the report seen by Nation.co.ke

It adds that almost half of the out of school children are in Garissa, Mandera, Nairobi, Turkana and Wajir, although these five counties represent only 16 per cent of the population.

NO SIGNIFICANT GENDER

In Mandera, the reports states that almost 15 per cent of the children are not in school, particularly those aged between 6-9 years — 79,500 in that age group do not go to school.

“Marsabit, Samburu and Tana River have three times more out of school children than their proportion in the population while Isiolo and West Pokot have about two times more out of school children than their proportion in the population,” reveals the report.

According to the report, Nairobi city has the fifth-highest number of children not in school — 38,300 most of them aged between 14-17 years.

“Nationwide, there is no significant gender difference within the out of school children population but in the north-eastern region, girls are at a 25 per cent risk to be out of school then boys,” states the report.

In Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Primary Education, the report notes that late entry into school remains a problem for primary-school-aged children. Access to education is not guaranteed to too many children.

“Dropping out of school is a major problem for adolescents as they leave primary school before the last grade and many do not transfer to secondary school,” reveals the report.

It goes on: “A significant drop in attendance between Standard Seven and Eight by over 10 per cent of enrolled children is a worrying problem.”

ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMMES

In Secondary School, the report observes that only 66 per cent of adolescents are starting secondary school, another 10 per cent are lost during the four years resulting to a low attendance rate of only 55 per cent of the eligible population to attend the last grade of secondary school. This results in higher out of school children and adolescent numbers.

Unicef now says there is a strong need for alternative education programmes (AEP), for instance catch-up programmes at primary-age level and skills or vocational training for those that drop out at secondary-school-age level.

It recommends that specific programmes should be introduced to target the most marginalised children in arid and semi-arid lands (Asal) in the rural counties and the most vulnerable children in informal urban settlements which are most hit by poverty.

The report adds that the richest members of the society send their children to school the earliest and have the lowest number of out of school children.

“The middle class is entering a little bit later, but most make sure their children attend school by the age of 6 and stay in school,” it adds.

The poorest population sends their children to school the latest, 25 per cent of children aged 6 years do not attend school and still 12 per cent of their children are not in school by age 10.