Kenya’s education system is divided into three stages: primary, secondary and higher education.
Primary education starts at the age of six, lasts for eight years and is organised in three stages: lower primary (ages 6-8 or grade 1-3), middle (9-10 or grades 4-5) and upper primary (ages 11-13 or grades
6-8). Secondary education lasts four years (ages 14-17 or form 1-4).
Challenges to the education system
Kenya’s population is growing fast at 2.7% annually, putting extra pressure onto an already struggling public sector
Progression from primary to secondary is an issue with only
50% of children in 2009 enrolled in secondary school
A 2011 study reporting on the
Kenyan status of education found: learning levels to be relatively low. Nationally, seven out of ten children in
Class 3 could not do Class 2 work (Class 2 work represents basic skills.) student and teacher absenteeism to be a challenge. In many districts, more than four out of ten children missed school daily.
On any single day, 13 out of
100 teachers were not in school teacher shortages in primary schools to be acute. On average, every Kenyan primary school had a shortage of four teachers (Uwezo, 2011)
Poor learning levels seem to be a stubborn problem; between 2000 and 2007, levels of achievement for Grade 6 students in both reading and mathematics did not improve. Studies have attributed this lack of improvement to the high levels of pupil drop out and repetition rates (SACMEQ, 2011)
Recently, a randomized evaluation in rural Kenya primary schools found textbooks to increase high achievers’ scores but have little effect on other students. Textbooks are written in English, most students' third language ( Glewwe et al, 2009).
Affordable learning sector
In 2011 a national survey found the private sector provided for
15% of 6-13 year olds ( Uwezo,