Education report reveals Mandera has largest number of school dropouts

According to the latest Learning Assessment report by the Usawa Agenda, lack of school fees was cited as the most common reason for school dropouts followed by other factors like non-desire to go school, migration, insecurity, teenage pregnancy and domestic violence. 

The report also reveals the concerns of parents with the implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum with a majority demanding that the cost be brought down to ease their burden.

The 2023 Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Report by the Usawa Agenda which was launched on Thursday, is the 8th Learning Assessment report but the first under the CBC curriculum whose assessment focused mainly on literacy and numeracy.

According to the 2023 FLANA, 8.5% of children are out of school an increase from 7.5% which was recorded in 2021.

Mandera County tops the list of counties with the highest number of children out of school at 27.2% followed by Marsabit at 24.9, Turkana at 22.6%, Samburu, West Pokot and Tana River Counties. With 14 out of 46 counties ranked as having a higher percentage than the national average of 8.5%, the report also reveals that more boys are dropping out of school compared to girls.

“The girls outperforming boys that is the picture that we found, it is a good picture the problem is that boys are dropping out of school and our focus is not just on girls it is on gender equality,” 

A majority of those who dropped out of school cited lack of school fees as the main reason at 36.7% while others just opted not to go to school. Other reasons ranged from Teenage pregnancy, insecurity and early marriage.

The report also exposed the skewed distribution of teachers in public schools, with schools in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) most affected. 

The counties that have the least P&P teachers are the same counties that have the highest percentage out of school for example Wajir has the worst rate of teachers employed on P&P as compared to Kirinyaga where 93% are employed on P&P becomes a double tragedy because these are the same counties where parents cannot afford money to employ teachers on BoM terms. 

The report comes at a time when the country is grappling with a challenging transition of the first two cohorts of CBC learners through junior school and preparation for the pioneer group’s transition to senior school at the end of 2025.

 A majority of parents decried the high cost of the new curriculum, too much content, homework and parental involvement.

“They want to see the cost being lowered; we have a group that says reduce the learning areas we have a group that says minimize homework,” 

On learning outcomes, 34.8% of Grade 6 learners who were expected to have completed the grade 3 level works by the time of the assessment could not meet expectations in reading a grade 3 appropriate English text. 

The gap between the likelihood of achieving better learning outcomes when attending a private primary school and a public primary school is also widening in favour of private schools. 

“When we are transitioning this child who cannot read a grade 3 text and we are taking them to secondary school what are we expecting them to actually do there?”

"We have a lot of environmental factors and the report has gone up to the simple provisions like water toilet space, things that would attract the child in school even nutrition in school all these are factors that would affect performance." 

Stakeholders hope that the findings will bolster the progress towards the achievement of SDG 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.