EDUCATION IN KENYA:
CHALLENGES AND POLICY
RESPONSES
Paper Prepared for Presentation at the Council
on Foreign Relations
Washington DC
By
Prof George Saitoti
Minister for Education, Science and Technology,
Government of Kenya
April 2004
1
1. Introduction
This presentation is organized as follows:
(a) A brief overview of Kenya and challenges that
the country is faced with;
(b) A broad overview of Kenya’s education system
and the challenges facing the sector;
(c) Policy responses with an emphasis on the
implementation of free primary education; and
(d) Concluding remarks

2
1.1 Kenya Basic Facts and Indicators

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Population 32 million with 57% between ages 0-19
years—meaning high dependency rates;
Economic performance-strong during 1960s and early
1970s; slowed in 1980s and 1990s;
The poor performance of the economy attributed to a
combination of factors including drought, poor donor
relations, ethnic conflict associated with transition to
multiparty democracy, advent of HIV/AIDS, weak
institutions and governance;
Economy largely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, but
increasingly diversifying into services and horticulture
Government spending is about 22% of GDP, education
takes largest share of government spending.
3
Key economic indicators’ annual growth rate (1997-2002)
(Table 1)
Indicator
Real Gross Domestic
Product (%)
Real GDP per capita
(%)
Real agricultural
output
Real manufacturing
output
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2.4
1.8
1.4
-0.3
1.2
1.1
-0.6
-1.1
-1.5
-2.6
-0.6
-1.1
1.0
1.5
1.2
-2.4
2.0
0.7
1.9
1.4
1.0
-1.5
0.8
1.2
Source: Economic Commission for Africa, 2003; World Bank, 2000;
Economic Survey 2003
4
Government revenue and expenditure (% of
GDP), 1997/1998- 2002/2003 (Table 2)
Domestic
revenue
Grants
Expenditure &
net lending
1997/
98
1998
/99
1999/
00
2000
/01
2001
/02
2002/
03
28.7
26.5
22.9
22.7
21.1
22.2
0.8
0.7
0.5
2.8
0.7
1.6
31.1
26.6
22.5
27.5
24.5
27.0
Source: Public Expenditure Review (PER) 2003
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1.2 Sectors’ Share in public expenditure
Education takes one of the largest share of
resources allocated to a single function.
 The figure below provides details of the
share of public expenditure by sector for
2002/2003 financial year.
 At about 20%, education sector is one of the
priority sectors in government expenditure.

6
Share of the Public expenditure by sector, 2002/03
financial year
Debt service
17%
Other services
14%
EconomicHousing
Health
services 1%
6%
13%
Defense and
public
administration
29%
Education
20%
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1.3 Kenya: Key Challenges

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Poverty – 57% of the population live in poverty
(Table 6)
HIV/AIDS – prevalence- 9.4% (Table 5)
Malaria – costly and reduces productivity
income distribution – inequality very high
Limited access to development goods-health,
education, clean water, etc.
Poor infrastructure (hence cost of doing business),
crime
Entrenching democracy, constitutional reform.
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Headcount poverty indices in Kenya: 1994-2000
(Table 6)
1994
1997
2000
Rural
46.75
52.93
52.56
Urban
28.95
49.20
51.48
National
43.84
52.32
56.78
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1.4 HIV/AIDS


HIV/AIDS impacts on social economic development.
HIV/AIDS causes:
a reduction in size and quality of the labour
force,
 increases healthcare expenditure,
 raises the cost of labour and
 reduces savings and investment.

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Figure 2 shows HIV prevalence from 1990 to 1998.
In 2000 the HIV prevalence was 13.4%
Declining to 9.4% in 2003.
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HIV Prevalence(%)
HIV Prevalence in Kenya, 1990-2003 (Figure 2)
20.0
18.0
16.0
14.0
12.0
10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0
2.0
0.0
Nation
al
Urban
Rural
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
Years
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2.0 Structure of Kenya’s Education
System
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The education and training sector contains :
Early Childhood Development and Pre-school
Education
Primary Education
Secondary Education
University Education
Technical and Vocational Education and Training
Teacher Education and Training
Non-formal Education and Adult Education
Special Education
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THE STRUCTURE OF KENYA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
(4 to 6 years)
SECONDARY EDUCATION
(4 years)
PRIMARY EDUCATION
(8 years)
MIDDLE LEVEL COLLEGES
(Maximum of 3 years)
These include:
•NATIONAL POLYTECHNICS
• TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGES
•VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
(These include; Technical
Training Institutes, Institutes of
Technology, and National Polytechnics).
YOUTH/VILLAGE
POLYTECHNIC
KEY
Indicates a strong link (formalized).
Indicates weak link (if there is any link). Some links are in the process of being strengthened
*This structure was implemented in 1985, to replace 7-4-2-3 i.e 7 years primary,
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4 years at ordinary level, 2 years at advance level and 3 years at the university
2.1 Primary Education
Is first phase of formal education system.
 The start age is 6 years and runs for 8 years.
 Promotes growth, imparts literacy and
numeracy skills.
 Lays a firm foundation for further formal
education and training and life-long learning.

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Challenges in primary education

Declining enrollments in primary school (before
2003)
- Cost
- Low access, retention and completion rates
- Poverty
-HIV/AIDS
- Distance and poor facilities
- Books
- Low private returns to primary education
15
Challenges(cont.)

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Primary school completion rates was 43.2% in 1990
with a slight increase over the years to 56.4% in
2003.
The proportion of girls not completing their primary
education is higher than that of boys- in 2003 Boys
60.3% as compared to 53.2% girls.
Wide regional and gender disparities in participation
in education especially at the primary school level.
The figure below illustrates the evolution of regional
disparities in primary school enrolment over the
period 1995-2003
16
% of School going age population
Primary school enrollment by
province, 1994-2003
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Central
Coast
Eastern
NAIROBI
North Eastern
Nyanza
Rift Valley
Western
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Year
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2.2 Secondary Education
Secondary education caters for primary
school leavers in the 14-17 years age group.
 There are about 3,500 public and 500 private
secondary schools
 The net enrolment is about 22% of the
eligible age group.

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Enrolment and Completion rates
The enrollment rates for both males (24.0%)
and females are very low(21.4%).
 There are wide disparities across
administrative regions of the country .
 About 79% of students joining secondary
school complete their secondary education.

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Transition from primary to secondary
education
 Transition rate from primary to secondary
schools is low, with only less than 50% of
primary school graduates entering secondary
school.
 The low transition rates are due to several
factors:
 Low quality of some of the existing
secondary schools,
 High cost of secondary education,
 Lack of perceived incentives to continue
education.
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Challenges in secondary
education
-
-
-
High drop out rates(21% do not complete)
poor performance
limited spaces in secondary schools
cost of secondary education
rigidity of academic programs
poverty and impact of HIV/AIDS
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Challenges cont...
student/teacher ratio high
 textbooks and other complements inadequate
equipment-especially science laboratories inadequate
 Inequalities
- regional and gender disparities
- gender
- limited opportunities for handicapped population

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2.3 University Education
Kenya has
 6 public universities
 17 private universities.
 Undergraduate education takes a minimum
of 4 academic years.
 Enrollment is about 63,000 students.
 Annual intake into public universities is
about 10,000 and Private universities ,
6,000.

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University Education(cont)
University education in public universities
in Kenya is mainly financed by the
government.
 The government (through the Higher
Education Loans Board) provides loans to
needy students.

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Challenges in university
education
Limited physical facilities leading to low
access and participation rates(10%)
 Poorly equipped (Lecture theatres,
laboratories, workshops etc.)
 Cost – unaffordable to majority of Kenyans
 Mismatch of training programmes with the
labour market.

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2.4 Tertiary Education
Tertiary education covers, Technical
training Institutes, Institutes of Technology
and National Polytechnics.
 Other middle level colleges including Youth
polytechnics.
 They form Technical Vocational and
Education Training(TVET)
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Challenges in Tertiary
Education
Under utilization of the capacity of TVET
institutions and the non-relevance of some of
their training programmes
 Poor management and governance of TVET
institutions.
 Lack of enough trained teachers/instructors
 Lack of facilities/equipment.

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3.0 POLICY RESPONSES
Universal Free Primary Education
 Targeted subsidies to those in secondary and
post-secondary institutions
 Loan schemes for higher education
 Involvement of stakeholders in formulation
of education policy

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Policy responses(cont)
Private-public
partnerships in education
financing
Strengthening
inspectorate and school
audits; accountability and transparency in
school management
Periodic
review of curriculum to ensure
relevance.
School
feeding programme in ASAL and
urban slums.
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4.0 Free Primary Education
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The National Rainbow Coalition (NARC)
government introduced Free Primary Education
(FPE) in January 2003.
Primary school completion rates was 43.2% in
1990 with a slight increase over the years to 56.4%
in 2003.
The proportion of girls not completing their
primary education is higher than that of boys- in
2003 boys 60.3% as compared to 53.2% girls.
Wide regional and gender disparities in
participation in education especially at the primary
school level.
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Free Primary Education (cont.)
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Under the policy of FPE, all fees and levies for
primary education have been abolished.
Besides meeting teachers’ salaries, the
government committed to provide teaching and
learning materials.
Kshs. 650 is being disbursed for each pupil
annually towards teaching and learning materials
Another Kshs. 370 per pupil is to cover
operational and other maintenance functions.
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Free Primary Education(cont.)
The Millennium Development Goals (MDG)
as articulated in the Jomtien 1990 and Dakar
2000 declarations to be achieved.
 Goals underline the importance of children’s
right to education as stipulated in the
Children’s Act of 2001.
 FPE is central to the implementation of the
Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS).

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Impact of Free primary education
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Increased access of 21% more children in school and
a Gross Enrolment Ratio of 104%.
Increase in Teacher/Pupil ratio from 1:32 to 1:40.
Provision of learning/teaching materials.
Improved pupil-book ratio where in grade 2 and 5
with a near ratio of 1:1 in English and Mathematics.
Enhancement of quality assurance mechanisms and
in-servicing of school inspectors.
Enhanced capacity of school management committees
leading to improved governance
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108
106
104
102
100
98
96
94
92
90
88
86
84
82
80
Boys
Girls
Total
19
90
19
91
19
9
19 2
9
19 3
94
19
95
19
96
19
9
19 7
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
0
20 2
03
Percentage
Primary Schools Gross Enrolment Ratio,
1990-2003
Year
34
Does Education Have Age Limit?
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Education for all
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5.0. CONCLUSION
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Kenya is faced with many challenges in the
education sector- but government committed to
tackling them with the assistance from development
partners.
In 2003 the new Government implemented its
campaign pledges by making primary school
education free (FPE) to all children.
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Conclusion cont..
The Government is determined to build
strong partnership to address major
challenges facing the education sector.
 A National Conference on Education
Training was convened between 27 and 29
November 2003.
 The conference yielded a wide range of
policy recommendations across all levels of
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the education sector.

National Conference on Education and
Training- charting the way forward

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The key policy issues from the conference include:
 The need for review of teachers’ norms
 Cost-effective expansion of secondary education
 Diversification of financing
 Review of early childhood development
 Possible legislative changes, and
 Strengthening of information communication
technology
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
is collating the recommendations and resolutions.
A Sessional Paper will be prepared for presentation
to Parliament.
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Way Forward(cont.)
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The Government has formulated an Economic
Recovery Plan to reverse the general economic
decline.
The plan is to encourage private sector investments.
To create wealth and employment opportunities.
The Government is targeting improvement in
governance.
Improving access to basic services is a priority.
Goal is to empower all Kenyans to acquire skills for
productive employment in the long run.
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END
Thank you
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