COPING WITH RAPID EXPANSION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF SFA POLICY KENYAS EXPERIENCE

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• COPING WITH RAPID EXPANSION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK
  OF SFA POLICY KENYAS EXPERIENCE
  
• 7th Meeting of the Working Group on EFA at
  UNESCO, PARIS 19th to 21st July, 2006
  
• Prof. George Godia
• Education Secretary
• Ministry of Education, Kenya

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Introduction

• Kenya Government declared Free Primary Education
  in January 2003. This was necessitated by
  declining enrolments following the introduction
  of cost sharing policy in 1989.

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Introduction (cont.)

• Cost sharing was a Government strategy to cope
  with the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs)
  introduced by the Brettonwoods Institutions.
  
• This hindered many children especially those from
  the economically marginalized groups from
  accessing primary education.
  

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Objectives of FPE

• The prime objectives of FPE include
• To reverse the declining enrolments at primary
  level.
  
• To enhance access, retention, quality and
  relevance at primary education level.
  
• To improve participation, progression and
  completion rates at primary level.

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Objectives of FPE (cont.)

• To implement sector policy goals including
  universally accepted conventions on the provision
  of education especially EFA and MDGs to which
  Kenya is a signatory.
• To reduce the burden of the cost previously borne
  by parents in the provision of primary
  education.
  

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Objectives of FPE (cont.)

• To streamline and rationalize the utilization of
  educational resources.
  
• To implement the provisions of the Children's
  rights domesticated in Childrens Act 2001.
  
• To improve on learning achievements.

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Effects of Abolition of Fees

• Following the abolition of fees and levies in
  January 2003, there was an upsurge in enrolment
  where an additional one million children were
  immediately enrolled in public primary schools.

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Effects of Abolition of Fees (cont.)

• The number of pupils in public primary schools
  increased from 5.9 million in December 2002 to
  6.9 million in January 2003.
  
• By December 2004, the number had grown to 7.12
  million children as illustrated in Table 1 and
  Figure 1.
  

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Effects of Abolition of Fees (cont.)

• Currently the enrolment stands at 7.6 million.
• The abolition is also benefiting children in NFS
  and about 300,000 are already on board.

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Effects of Abolition of Fees (Cont.)

• The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) increased from
  88.2 percent in 2002 to 102.8 percent in 2003.
  
• The GER rose further to 104.8 in 2004.
• The GER for boys and girls increased considerably
  from 88.9 and 87.5 percent in 2002 to 108.0 and
  101.6 percent in 2004 respectively.

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Table 1 Impact of FPE on Primary School
Enrolment (Figures in 000)
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Fig.1 Primary School Gross Enrolment Rates,
1999-2004
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Effects of Abolition of Fees (cont.)

• Overstretched physical facilities including water
  and sanitation.
  
• Increased class sizes particularly in the urban
  slums areas. This led to high PTRs whereby in
  some cases it exceeded 1001.
  
• Initial decline in quality of education due to
  reduced teacher pupil contact.
  
• Increased workload for teachers.

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Coping Strategies and Mechanisms
1. Constitution of FPE Taskforce
In response to the initial implementation
challenges posed by the upsurge, MoE
constituted a task force comprising of
Ministry officials, Development Partners,
Private Sector and Civil Society
Organizations.
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Constitution of FPE Taskforce (cont.)

• The main objective of the task force was
• To develop appropriate strategies for
  implementing FPE
  
• To identify concrete guidelines for smooth and
  effective implementation of FPE.
  

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2. Resource Mobilization

• Immediately after the initiation of FPE, the
• Government and other stakeholders
• embarked on a rapid resource mobilization
• exercise to cope with the upsurge.

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Resource Mobilization (cont.)

• Some of the initial sources of the FPE funds
• were
• Kshs.519 million (US6.8 million) from the
  Government in emergency grants for use in public
  primary schools to address immediate school
  needs. Out of this, each school received a grant
  of KShs.28,871 (US380) to cater for basic needs
  such as chalk, duster, exercise books, etc

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Resource Mobilization (cont.)

• KShs.1.6 billion (US21.1 million) grant was
  received from DFID
  
• KShs.192 million (US2.5 million) from UNICEF to
  purchase teaching and learning materials.
  

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Resource Mobilization (cont.)

• A further KShs.2.4 billion (US31.6 million) was
  disbursed from Treasury under the supplementary
  estimates for the financial year 2002/03
  
• World Bank Kshs.3.75 billion (US50 million)
  grant. This was meant to last two years to cater
  for instructional materials and capacity
  building.

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Resource Mobilization (cont.)

• DFID/SIDA/CIDA- Kshs.809 million (US10.6
  million)
  
• WFP Kshs.1.056 billion (US13.9 million)
• OPEC Kshs.753 million (US9.9 million)

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Resource Mobilization (cont.)

• Other notable contributors to the success of the
  programme included Oxfam (GB), Action Aid, a
  number of NGOs, CBOs, CSOs and FBOs
  
• Universal Primary Education Fund Account was
  opened through which all well wishers would
  channel their support to FPE.

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3. Data Collection and Information

• Data on school enrollment was collected for
  funding purposes.
  
• The Ministry also developed circulars on
  guidelines to teachers and headteachers on FPE
  implementation.
  
• Curriculum materials were developed and teachers
  advised on modalities of coping with the expanded
  enrollment.
  

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4. Teacher Development - Capacity Building

• Extensive orientation/training was provided to
  teachers through national in-service programme
  under SbTD.
  
• School cluster approach was introduced in
  selected ASAL Districts to help teachers on
  child-centered-interactive and participatory
  methods.
• Training of school management committee on
  financial management.

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5. Teacher Balancing and Deployment

• In coping with the increased workload for
  teachers and to address the existing shortage of
  teachers in certain areas, the Government
  embarked on a countrywide staff balancing
  exercise by deploying teachers from over-staffed
  regions/districts/schools to those that were
  understaffed.

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6. Monitoring and Audit Strategies

• The Ministry established a monitoring strategy
  from headquarters through provinces to the
  district. In this set up, District Education
  Officers were required to monitor in every
  primary schools disbursed funds, enrolment
  status, textbook-pupil ratio and curriculum
  implementation.
• Established auditing mechanisms to ensure
  accountability.

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7. Other Coping Strategies

• The Government reached out to development
  partners and other stakeholders for support
  towards the expansion of school physical
  facilities.

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Other Strategies

• Partnered with Ministries of Home Affairs, Local
  Government and civil society in bringing the
  orphans and out-of-school children back to
  school.
• The Government intensified and sustained
  sensitization and awareness raising campaigns on
  the roles of various stakeholders in the
  implementation of FPE.

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Other Strategies (cont.)

• Quality monitoring and standards assessment
  visits to all schools were intensified to ensure
  that education quality was not diluted.
  
• Integrated the FPE strategy with the process of
  developing a long term development plan using
  Sector Wide Approaches (SWAp).

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Lessons Learnt

• Sustained political commitment and goodwill
  remain critical to the success of the programme.
  
• Partnership and collaboration at every level of
  the programme implementation is essential to its
  sustainability.
  

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Lessons Learnt (cont.)

• Establishment of an elaborate institutional
  framework is a prerequisite for successful
  programme implementation.
  
• Entrenchment of the programme into the national
  budget right at the inception is vitally
  important.

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Lessons Learnt (cont.)

• Despite cost being one of the single most
  important factors inhibiting access, it is
  acknowledged that there are other informal
  barriers that hinder access which include
• Social cultural factors.
• Perception of the term Free Education.
• Feeding Programmes

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Lessons Learnt (cont.)

• Removal of bureaucracy in the disbursement of FPE
  resources facilitates the effective disbursement
  of funds directly to the schools, thus, it
  removes the role of the middlemen and hence
  minimizes leakages.

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Way Forward

• Countries like Kenya which have adopted the SFAI
  policy should be considered for financial support
  from the international community. This will help
  bridge the gap created by the diversion of
  national resources towards supporting the bold
  initiative.
• Currently 23.8 percent of the Kenyan budget is
  allocated to education. Out of a total Government
  budget of KShs. 415.9 billion (US 5.8 billion)
  Education takes KShs. 99 billion (US 1.4
  billion).

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END
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