Only 31pc of children enrol in nursery schools, report shows

Only 31 per cent of children enrol in pre-primary schools in Kenya, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report reveals.

According to the Human Development Report 2019, inequalities in the parents’ socio-economics status and health are the key determinants of pre-primary school enrolments.

“Inequalities in education start during infancy. Exposure to stimuli and the quality of care, both in the family and institutional environments, are crucial for expanding children’s choices in later life,” part of the report read.

Quality of service

The low number of children joining pre-primary school, usually at the age of three years, is a setback to the government initiative of free and compulsory basic education for all.

It also puts the government 100 per cent transition policy introduced in 2017 by the then Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i under the microscope.

“Kenya being a medium human development country, enrolment in pre-primary programmes (ages three to school entrance age) is 31 per cent while of those in very high human development stands at 80 per cent,” read the report.

Some 1.1 million candidates sat this year Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination and close to one million are set to join Form One.

This brings the government within touching distance of its goal to achieve 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school.

Transition rates jumped from about 56 per cent in 2004 after the introduction of free primary education in 2003, to 81.3 per cent in 2017.

The HDR also put the teacher to pupil ratio at one to 31.  High enrolment has stretched infrastructure and personnel.

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chief executive Nancy Macharia earlier acknowledged that increased enrolment in public schools had put a strain on teachers because of increased workload.