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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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
Maya 4
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.
Maya 5
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/.
Wanzala, O. (2019, February 09). Kenya: Teacher Training Set for Major Changes As Reforms