International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations ISSN 2348-7585 (Online) Vol. 7, Issue 2, pp: (1244-1250), Month: October 2019 - March 2020, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
Financing education for equity and quality: A review of Kenya’s free primary education policy 1
Sr. Madeleine Sophie Barat Achieng, 2Prof. Jane Opiri 1
(PhD Candidate, Catholic University of Eastern Africa),
2
(Professor at University of Louisiana, USA) & George Manasse Andayi (Research Fellow, ResearchSphere Ltd)
Abstract: In January 6th 2003, Kenyan children started the day with new vigour and hope. Primary education was free and all that was required was for every child regardless of age to walk to school next to where they lived. The introduction of the Free Primary Education policy soon resulted to a high influx of new pupils into public schools, putting pressure on existing resources. In 2010, the government implemented a new formula for disbursement of FPE funds for instructional materials. Under this new formula, schools which had fewer textbooks per pupil were to receive greater amounts of money than those that had more textbooks. This paper sought to critically examine how financing of primary education by the Kenyan government has enhanced equity and quality in all Kenyan public primary schools. Though the abolition of school levies has led to increase in numbers of students attending primary school, with it has come many challenges among them the challenge of equity and quality. The issue of quality education has become a great concern to stakeholders and the question of whether all school-age children are in school is still nagging since there is evidence of disparities in access based on gender, language, disability, special groups and region. This paper adopted a desktop review of published works on Free Primary Education in Kenya. While a lot has been written on Free Primary Education, recommendations of this paper should inform Free Primary Education policy makers and guide its implementers. Keywords: Financing education, Free Primary Education, equity, quality.
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Information to the Study Since independence in 1963, the Kenyan government has addressed the challenges of education system through commissions, committees and task forces. The most significant government reports and commissions include The Ominde Report of 1964, The Gachathi Report of 1976, Mackey Report of 1981, The Kamunge Report of 1988 and The Koech Report of 2000. According to Eshiwani (1990) and Kenya (2008) the initial government reports aimed at policies fostering national unity and creation of sufficient human capital and were adopted from the colonial government. The government reports in the 1980s were more focused on redefining education to foster national unity, social, economic and cultural aspirations of Kenyans. Issues concerning education financing, quality and relevance were only introduced in the 1990s. In 2000, the Commission of Inquiry into the Education System of Kenya (The Koech Report, 2000) recommended the Totally Integrated Quality Education and Training (TIQET). The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST, 2005) stated that the report outlined ways and means of enabling education facilitate lifelong learning, national unity, mutual social responsibility, accelerated industrial and technical development, while responding to changing circumstances. However the Koech Report (2000) was never adopted by the Government and according to MoEST (2014) it has since been implemented in peace-meal form. Key amongst these is curriculum rationalisation which has seen a couple of changes in the curriculum content for primary school pupils since that time. In 2010 Prof. Douglas Odhiambo task force proposed a review of the curriculum and recommended a 2-6-3-3 education system that would, amongst other
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