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Kenya and its Adaption of the Global Education First Initiative

In 2012, the United Nations Secretary General launched a 5 year program aimed at

improving education for students all across the globe. The program had three main priorities: put

every child in school, improve the quality of learning, and foster global citizenship (UNESCO,

2016). While these priorities may seem very standard and simplistic for certain people, it is

important to note that they can be challenging to achieve for some countries. Kenya is one of

those countries. They are still a developing country, and as such, they have more issues

delivering/maintaining these standards as opposed to a developed country such as the United

States or Germany. Kenya has not yet succeeded in achieving every priority, but that doesn’t

mean they aren’t working on them. The country has been steadily working over the last decade

to improve their educational system and ensure a better foundation for the future.

“PUT EVERY CHILD IN SCHOOL”

The first priority laid out by the United Nations Secretary General was to put every child

in school (UNESCO, 2016). A daunting task, Kenya has not done an amazing job so far. As seen

in Fig. 1 on the left, only 72% of female and 71%

of male children are in primary school. The

numbers are even worse for pre-primary, lower

secondary, and upper secondary students, with

enrollment rates dropping to less than 30%. To

provide some perspective, students are in

pre-primary from ages 3-6, primary from ages

6-12, lower secondary from ages 12-14, and upper


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secondary from ages 14-18 (Education Policy and Data Center, 2018). In essence, the majority of

children 12-18 are not receiving an education. Soaring school fees and an ongoing shortage of

teachers can be attributed to the declining number of students (Non-Profit Quarterly, 2015).

Many families feel it is more financially responsible to leave their children home rather than

paying multiple school fees and sending them into classrooms with untrained teachers.

“IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LEARNING”

The second priority of the Secretary General was to improve the quality of learning for

individual countries (UNESCO, 2016). Although they have hit multiple obstacles along the way,

Kenya has been slowly working on improving their education quality. Fig. 2 on the left shows us

the literary rates for young Kenyans from

2000-2014. The literacy rate dipped in 2007,

but as of 2014 is slowly returning to its

original 2000 rate. Another welcome graph is

Fig. 3 right underneath, which demonstrates

the rising rate of students completing primary

school. From 2004 to 2015, the rate of

primary school completion rose by over 10%

for both male and female students.

The biggest issue for Kenya to tackle now is

figuring out how to get students that

completed primary school to continue on

with their education. As noted in the previous


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paragraph, the percentage of primary students continuing into lower secondary school is

incredibly low. Whether it be by lowering school fees or further improving the quality of their

education, Kenya must do something to help increase the enrollment rate.

“FOSTER GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP”

The third - and perhaps most broad - priority was to foster global citizenship (UNESCO,

2016). On the program’s website, they describe this priority by stating that “​It is not enough for

education to produce individuals who can read, write and count… Education must fully assume

its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies. It

must give people the understanding, skills and values they need to cooperate in resolving the

interconnected challenges of the 21st century” (UNESCO, 2016).

Battered with poor quality teachers in school, Kenya has recently begun to focus on this

priority by introducing policy intended to revamp instruction for future educators. It’s part of an

effort to standardize training curriculum and allow the profession to flourish by “attracting the

best brains into the profession for innovativeness” (Wanzala, 2019). As mentioned on the United

Nations website, “... If we want to transform the way students learn, we must also help teachers

expand their own skills and outlooks… Many teachers lack the training, confidence and

classroom resources to meet these challenges without support and instruction” (2016). If a nation

wants to foster global citizenship in their students, they must have the necessary academic

infrastructure in place for teachers to guide them. Although Kenya does not currently have that

infrastructure in place, they are certainly working on improving the infrastructure they do have

and ensuring that students in the future are able to benefit from it.
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CONCLUSION

Although Kenya was not able to complete all three priorities by the end of the five year

initiative, they have demonstrated a will to complete these priorities eventually. The country has

done a good job at improving the quality of learning and finding ways to foster global

citizenship. As previously mentioned, they struggle the most with putting every child in school.

There is still a massive gap between enrollment rates for primary and lower secondary students.

The good news is that working on the last two priorities is bound to have a positive impact on the

first priority.

Fixing the Kenyan education system is not a project that can be done in five years. It is a

complex situation that may take decades to fully overhaul. Knowing that, the Kenyan

government has repeatedly shown its commitment to improving its education system. Given

ample time and resources, there is no reason to believe that Kenya would not be able to meet the

priorities of the United Nation Global Education First Initiative in the coming future.
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Reference List

Fig. 1, 3 - Education Policy and Data Center. (2018). Kenya. Retrieved from

https://www.epdc.org/country/kenya​.

Fig. 2 - UNESCO Institute of Statistics. (2017, April 12). Kenya. Retrieved from

http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/KE​.

Nelson, G. (2015, October 06). Fees and Inequality in the Kenyan School System. Retrieved

from

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2015/10/06/fees-and-inequality-in-the-kenyan-school-syste

m/​.

UNESCO. (2016). About the Global Education First Initiative. Retrieved from

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/gefi/about/​.

UNESCO. (2016). Priorities. Retrieved from ​http://www.unesco.org/new/en/gefi/priorities/​.

Wanzala, O. (2019, February 09). Kenya: Teacher Training Set for Major Changes As Reforms

Take Root. Retrieved from ​https://allafrica.com/stories/201902090139.html​.

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