Janet Wangu Maina

Promoting Educational Equality in Kenya
By Janet Wangu Maina, graduate of Georgetown University Law Center’s LLM program in international legal studies

Women in Kenya remain disadvantaged, with opportunities for educational, social, and economic advancement inferior to those of men. Women are underrepresented in modern sector wage employment, political and judicial decision making, and all major public service appointments. Numerous social, economic, and cultural barriers limit women’s participation in these areas. But women’s underrepresentation in education is a primary factor.

The benefits of women’s education to women and to society in general are immense. In the workplace, education increases skills needed for job entry, improves chances of vertical mobility, and enhances overall labor market productivity. It also has positive consequences at home, including improved health, increased child survival rates, reduced fertility rates, lower infant mortality rates, and better protection against HIV and AIDS (Tembon and Fort 2008). Education of women and girls is therefore not only a moral and human rights issue, but also an economic and development issue.

Given the significant benefits of women’s education, equity in education is essential to improving circumstances for all Kenyans. As the leading provider of education, the government should acknowledge that compensatory mechanisms may be required to level the playing field for disadvantaged girls, and it should adopt an approach that uses these mechanisms. Making education equitable means adopting policies and initiatives that support equal provisions across genders.

Female Education in Kenya

Education in Kenya has four basic levels: preschool (ages 4-6), primary (ages 7-14), secondary (ages 15-18), and tertiary. Since attaining political independence from Great Britain in 1963, the Kenyan government has emphasized education’s importance to economic development. It has also increased the number of schools at all levels, from about six thousand primary and 150 secondary schools in 1963 to almost twenty thousand primary and four thousand secondary schools in 2004. As a result, the student population has increased substantially, with over 700 percent growth at the primary level and almost 3,000 percent growth at the secondary level (Ministry of Education 2007). But this total expansion in education hides disparities by gender and region.

In early childhood education, despite rapid growth, enrollment in arid and semiarid areas and slums has remained low. About 2.8 million children (68 percent) are not accessing early childhood education, and many of these children are girls (Ministry of Education 2007).

In January 2003, the government introduced free primary education, and participation in primary education has since achieved near gender parity. But in certain regions, gender disparities that favor boys still exist. In 2006, only 20.8 percent of children in the Northeastern province (24.3 percent of boys and 16.5 percent of girls) were enrolled in school, compared with a national average of 86.5 percent for both boys and girls (Ministry of Education 2007).

The rate of transition from primary to secondary education increased to about 60 percent in 2007 (from 46 percent in 2003). But as at the primary level, regional disparities in overall enrollment rates exist in secondary schools. In 2006, the secondary gross enrollment rate (number of enrolled children as a percent of the number of children in the official school-age group) was 6.3 percent in the Northeastern province (8.6 percent of boys and 3.6 percent of girls), compared with a national average of 32.2 percent (34.6 percent of boys and 29.9 percent of girls). Moreover, girls’ gross enrollment rates are lower than boys’ across regions, and the relatively high gender ratios achieved at the primary level in certain regions are not maintained as many girls drop out of school (Republic of Kenya 2008).  

At the university level, women remain underrepresented, forming about 40 percent of the total student population in 2007 (Republic of Kenya 2008). Women’s low rates of attendance at the university level reflect the cumulative effect of factors hindering their progression in education from the time they enter school at the preprimary level. Women’s representation remains low despite the fact that the government has lowered girls’ required university entry points (calculated based on grades and difficulty of courses taken at the secondary level) by one point to improve women’s access to university education (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women 2006). The effects of this low representation in education are reflected in the labor market, where women represent only 30 percent of all wage employees in the modern sector (Republic of Kenya 2008).

Factors Hindering Women’s Education

The factors affecting girls’ participation in education are numerous and varied. In arid and semiarid areas (most notably the Northeastern province), a nomadic way of life makes it difficult for girls (and boys) to attend schools consistently. Long distances to schools particularly disadvantage girls, who have caregiving responsibilities that keep them close to home. Because communities in arid climates lack water and energy sources, many girls must trek long distances to fetch water and firewood before going to school. This takes away crucial time that they would otherwise spend on their studies and is ultimately detrimental to their academic performance. Their poor performance affects their educational progression and their parents’ support of their education, as parents who do not see the value added will not send their girls to school. The result is a vicious cycle where girls attending school under difficult circumstances perform poorly, discouraging their parents from further supporting their educations.

Other causes of girls’ low participation rates include cultural practices that favor the education of boys to that of girls, such as early marriages, childbearing, and attendant parental responsibilities. Extreme poverty also plays a role (Institute of Economic Affairs 2008). At the secondary and tertiary level, financial constraints affect women’s participation. Secondary education is subsidized by the government, but access to the tertiary level is made possible through higher education loans. Although these loans are meant to ensure equitable access, they have serious limitations. Students are not guaranteed access to the loans, and access for students in private universities is particularly limited despite the fact that many of these students are from low-income groups.

Facing the Challenge

Kenya has made progress in ensuring that education is available to all. But enrollment of females is generally lower than that of males. And with very low transition rates, women become scarcer as one moves up the educational ladder. For many girls, primary education is the last stop, and primary education is not sufficient to equip students with the skills necessary to earn a living. Particularly in arid regions, many children are not enrolled in school. The current system cannot be described as equitable, and disparities raise serious questions about what happens to those who are left out. But what, concretely, can the government do to stop this inequity?

The challenge for girls’ education in Kenya is to ensure that girls enroll in school and successfully complete their educations. The Kenyan government needs to address limitations on access and retention. Current efforts have centered on removing financial barriers to access by making primary education free and by subsidizing secondary education. But these policies and programs have not been wholly successful, and despite increased total enrollment, significant regional and gender disparities exist. Poor students’ access has improved overall, but for many girls, access and retention remain elusive. Equal opportunity will depend on infrastructural changes, such as expanding access to water and electricity to reduce girls’ responsibilities, building boarding schools in arid and semiarid areas, and providing security to make sure girls attend school consistently.

Having signed onto the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the government of Kenya is obligated to promote equality in education. To achieve equality, the government should design initiatives that take into account the circumstances of girls, whether they live in the arid areas or cities, among the urban or rural poor.

References

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. 2006. Consideration of reports submitted by states parties under article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: Combined fifth and sixth periodic reports of states parties: Kenya. United Nations. www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/898586b1dc7b4043c1256a450044f331/2cebc98c60eb056cc125729c0046f536/$FILE/N0659780.pdf

Institute of Economic Affairs. 2008. Profile of women’s socio-economic status in Kenya. Nairobi: Institute of Economic Affairs. www.ieakenya.or.ke/documents/Profiling%20Women%20in%20Kenya.pdf.  

Ministry of Education. 2007. Gender policy in education. Republic of Kenya.

Republic of Kenya. 2008. Millennium development goals status report for Kenya–2007. Ministry of State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030.

Tembon, M., and L. Fort, eds. 2008. Girls’ education in the 21st century: Gender equality, empowerment, and economic growth. Washington, DC: World Bank.