Benjamin Muindi

1 September 2010

Nairobi — Six million people - including children who ought to be in classrooms - are not in school, the 2009 census results show.

Of these, 3.9 million are children of school-going age.

The 2.1 million others are adults who have never stepped into a school.

Though the Education ministry got the highest allocation in the last Budget - Sh170 billion - it will need more money to get these children into classrooms.

It will be a case of precariously balancing the retention of 14 million learners in schools and roping in the others while ensuring the quality of education does not suffer.

And while the report says there have been a gradual decline in the number of people who have never attended school, illiteracy levels are still high.

As at last year, the Kenya National Literacy Survey reported that there were 7.8 million illiterate youth and adults -- two thirds of them female.

Apparently, the figure is much higher than that of people who never attended school at the time of the 2009 census.

This means that about 1.8 million are in school but cannot read or write, casting doubts on the efficacy of the country's education system.

The numbers of those that never attended school cannot satisfactorily be used to assess the level of literacy in Kenya.

This is because the figures are based on the self-confessions of those who "never-attended school" and no actual literacy tests were administered.

Proven scientific methods

As at last year, there were more females (3.4 million) compared to males (2.6 million) who confessed to not having attended school.

There is, therefore, need to obtain more accurate data derived from a proven scientific method on the literacy of the people.

Adult education learning programmes in the country are hampered by lack of trainers and facilities across the country.

The census report says that 15,000 people are currently attending basic literacy classes and 1,000 are in madrassa.

Lack of motivation among learners and well-trained teachers put adult education out of the reach of many, according to Mr Joseph Mutamba of Elimu Yetu Coalition, a group of agencies promoting education reform.

At the primary school level, about 1.9 million children aged between six and 13 years are out of school. The situation is worse at secondary level where 2.7 million students aged between 14 and 17 years, are not in school, the majority girls.

There are about 20,000 primary and 7,000 secondary schools in the country.