Editor's Note: This article was written by Bonface witaba, author of Global Voices, and guest author Sri Ranjini Mei Hua, Singaporean researcher and writer.
In March, the Kenyan government announced the closure of schools as part of measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, which disrupted the scholastic curriculum, affecting 18 million students across the country. In addition, it threatened to sabotage progress towards inclusive, equitable and quality education as described in Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
As part of efforts to ensure continuous learning and also to protect the health, safety and well-being of students and educators, the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with partners and stakeholders in the education sector, designed the Response Plan for COVID-19 Emergency of Basic Education in Kenya with the aim of promoting “learning outside the classroom” through radio, television, electronic cloud and mobile devices.
Currently, despite efforts by the Kenya Curriculum Development Institute (KIDC) to expand the distribution of online content, an estimated 80% of students still do not have access to online classes, according to a study conducted by Usawa Agenda (an educational network).
In part, this is due to unequal access to technology such as computers, laptops or mobiles, and the prohibitive costs of the internet and unreliable online access, especially for students from disadvantaged families and underserved communities. Even where technology is available, there is concern around unsupervised use of the internet by children.
Before lockdown, students had free access to food at school. Girls had access to sanitary napkins thanks to an initiative that provided them free of charge. However, with the prolonged closure, Cabinet Secretary for Education George Magoha declared the school calendar “lost”, meaning that schools will remain closed until 2021, leaving thousands of students in a difficult situation already. that their families cannot afford food and basic necessities due to recent unemployment.
In Kibra, for example, an area considered to be the largest informal settlement in Nairobi (and Africa), most children cannot access KCID's 'learning outside the classroom' schemes, many do not have a place to study and much less to play or exercise.
(For many years, the area was called “Kibra”, a mispronunciation of the word kibera, Nubian word meaning “forest”. The Nubian community in Kenya feels that the use of 'Kibera' robs them of their identity. ”)
Asha jaffar, a journalist who lives in Kibra and reports on the plight of the Kibra community, told Global Voices in a Skype interview that there were a limited number of free libraries that allowed up to 10 students to do their homework at a time. However, these students must yield space to the next group of students after one hour. He added that free education initiatives for students have had to be reduced due to social distancing rules imposed by the government and health officials.
The long-term repercussions of school closures are varied and even more devastating for families living below the poverty line. As food security is more important than education, students from more vulnerable families, especially girls, often have to help with farm jobs and contribute to household chores instead of studying. This was advanced during the closure that coincided with the peak planting season in March.
Some girls may even be the target of early marriages, putting them at higher risk of dropping out of school, often as a result of early pregnancy. Thus, the educational outcomes of the most vulnerable families will suffer, as they have little reason to send their children back to school when it opens again.
In March, Jaffar launched the Kibra Food Drive program to help alleviate hunger in the Kibra community through donations of food packages to the most vulnerable families. It started with the request for donations through the M-Pesa mobile wallet, with the aim of feeding a hundred vulnerable families a week, but with a growing need for support, the initiative has fed 2,400 families until August 5. Jaffar acknowledges that this is not enough because ultimately, families need support to start small businesses. However, the community remains at a stalemate, as trade and economic activity are stagnant.
Kenya foresees a new academic year in 2021, although it all depends on the number of COVID-19 infections, according to Cabinet Secretary for Education Magoha.
Several education experts say that this period is an opportunity for the Government to carry out an analysis of the deficiencies of the education system and carry out a complete re-launch of the search to provide equitable access to learning for all, as envisaged in the Kenya Basic Education COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan: The first step would be to allocate the budget to improve school infrastructure in terms of lighting, desks and chairs, and provide a reliable electricity supply, especially in rural areas . The government could then reduce water and electricity rates for schools as these huge costs are hurting their operation.
Only when these priorities are ranked can efforts be resumed on a now stagnant digital literacy project launched by the Government in 2013. The goal of the program was to ensure that students in the first cycle of primary education (grades 1 to 3) could use digital technology and communication tools, with the overall goal of transforming learning in Kenya into a 21st century education system.
The project stalled as soon as it got underway after its pilot phase because expected results were not achieved and educators were not prepared to scale up the initiative. To be successful, the program requires extensive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training for educators so that they can effectively use and troubleshoot these devices.
Kenya has moved from a Universal Primary Education (UPE) program to an Education For All (EFA) program, the second goal of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, aimed at ensuring that by 2015 all the world's children complete primary education, while EFA was a UNESCO-led global movement aimed at bringing the benefits of education to “all citizens of all societies”. With these achievements, Kenya cannot afford to reverse the progress it has made.
Now, Kenya's next challenge is to ensure that all students have access to digital literacy projects that provide mainstream and comprehensive, competency-based and self-learning education in order to meet its vision of education and sustainable development goals. by 2030.