70K child refugees out of school owing to lack of funds

A newly released report says over seventy thousand refugee children living in Daadab and Kakuma camps are on the verge of missing school due to inadequate funds to support education programmes.

Primary and secondary schools, in both camps, face extreme challenges as most are congested beyond capacity with little or no resources to meet the growing needs of the learners.

Key challenges the report highlighted include schools being over capacity with minimal resources, an ongoing teacher shortage, as well as gender parity in secondary schools considering the unique challenges girls face in accessing education

“The school-aged refugee population grew substantially in the past year from 10 million to 14.8 million, but 51 per cent of those children are estimated to be out of school.

There is a dire need for adequate funding. Needs are growing, but resources are quickly disappearing,” a policy report released by the US Committee on Refugees and Immigrants said.

Dubbed, Access to Education and Protection for Children in Kenya’s Refugee Camps, the report observed that learners are left to suffer the consequences as funding decreases and donor fatigue grows.

The situation has deteriorated post-COVID-19 pandemic despite Kenya’s efforts to provide accessible and inclusive education for refugee children.

Community education

During a Global Refugee Forum held in 2019, the country committed to increase support for refugee and host community education through the implementation of the Education and Training Policy on the Inclusion of Refugees and Asylum-Seekers and a costed implementation plan

However, USCRI noted that Kenya, like most host countries, grapples with an already strained education system and limited resources. Much of the financial capacity required to ensure adequate implementation of such commitments is heavily dependent on international financial support and partnerships.

Even with the enactment of the Refugee Act in 2022 which gave additional opportunities, rights, protection, and solutions for refugees, children in the camps have limited access to quality learning opportunities.

National average

“Classrooms in the camps typically support 150 children per class with one instructor, and some situations have much higher classroom counts. This is compared to the national average of 40-45 students per teacher,” the report stated.

Data showed that there were 94,000 children in school in Kakuma while in Daabab the number stood at 71,827 as of December 2023, yet in both camps, there are a big number of school-aged children who are not attending school at all. “The international community must develop urgent and concrete action because one cannot push for higher enrolment rates when successfully doing so would cause education systems to collapse,” USCRI explained.

The report added: “It is important to note that many refugee students in Dadaab and Kakuma are overage learners. This is because many refugee children and youth often miss significant amounts of schooling due to being on the move, having little to no access to education in home countries, or a lack of formal education altogether.”