.
T

he Constitution of Kenya states that every child has the right to a free education. Beyond being a right, education is also a crucial tool for personal and economic development. This means the government has a critical responsibility to ensure that every child has access to quality education. In Kenya, most children in arid and semi-arid areas encounter insurmountable obstacles to accessing quality education. Some of these obstacles include perennial drought, insecurity, retrogressive cultural practices, and nomadism. These obstacles make it difficult for these students to compete for the few resources in Kenya. Many of them do not complete their primary education and those who do perform poorly in national examinations like the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). This has resulted in a cycle of poverty in these areas.

The National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (NACONEK) has initiated innovative projects aimed at addressing challenges of equity, access, and quality. This is through a program referred to as NACONEK Integrated Water, Food and Energy for Sustainable Schools (NIWFESS). NIWFESS aspires to provide basic essentials for the child like drinking water, adequate and nutritious food, and water for sanitation and hygiene. The program also provides teenage girls with menstrual hygiene kits. Some other innovative projects include the establishment of Low-Cost Boarding Schools and Mobile Schools in underserved, remote areas.

Low-Cost Boarding School

NACONEK has established Low-Cost Boarding Schools as safe spaces for learners faced by challenges of the nomadic lifestyle. These schools serve as a preventive measure against early marriages for girls, who are often forced into marriage at an immature age. The government funds this initiative alongside development partners.

Mobile Schools Initiative

Mobile Schools is a community-led initiative that provides a flexible model of education that is well suited to the nomadic pastoralist lifestyle. They are temporary sites erected to serve as classrooms. This unique intervention requires teachers to be equipped with a unique set of teaching skills and learning materials to enable them to teach in a mobile set up.

COVID-19 Pandemic and New Initiatives

Great gains had been achieved since 2015 through the Low-Cost Boarding school and the Mobile Schools initiatives. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many of these gains were lost. The prolonged closure of school and financial drawbacks that resulted from the pandemic exposed learners to early marriages, forced labor, and a lack of motivation to return to schools when they reopened. According to a joint survey conducted by NACONEK and UNICEF in June 2021, around 70% of Kenya’s learners had dropped out of school due to challenges of the pandemic.

Kenya’s government sought to minimize education disruption during the pandemic by establishing “the Kenya Education Cloud.” Through this initiative, lessons were aired by television and radio, but learners in arid and semi-arid areas lacked internet connections and electricity—and thus were left out. The government has since worked with development partners to introduce solar-powered radios to remote areas for the transmission of lessons. This has been effective, enhancing learning in literacy and numeracy. The radios have also helped support accelerated learning programs in the region.

The government is also planning an initiative to be carried out in the 2022-2023 strategic plan which will establish offline Learning Resource Centers and Mobile Caravans. These learning centers will use offline internet connectivity to serve several remote schools. This initiative will essentially upgrade mobile schools, turning them into containerized learning centers strategically placed in nomadic pathways. These centers will be well-equipped to address skill development for out of school youth as well as learning centers for basic education.

There are still some challenges requiring additional action to prepare children belonging to nomadic groups to fairly compete with the rest of the children in the nation. Such affirmative action should consider the underlying factors that work against these children’s success such as lack of clean water, food insecurity, oppressive gender roles, ethnic and external conflicts, and inadequate teachers. Moreover, as we seek to embrace the breadth of skills that are inclusive, all innovations should be gender sensitive and appreciative of cultural diversity.

About
Emis M. Njeru
:
Emis M. Mjeru is the Deputy to the CEO, National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (NACONEK).
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.

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Promoting Learning For Kenya’s Nomadic Children

Sware, Kenya. Photo by Tucker Tangeman via Unsplash.

September 16, 2022

In Kenya, most children in arid and semi-arid areas encounter insurmountable obstacles to accessing quality education. However, the National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya has initiated innovative projects aimed at addressing these challenges, writes Emis M. Mjeru.

T

he Constitution of Kenya states that every child has the right to a free education. Beyond being a right, education is also a crucial tool for personal and economic development. This means the government has a critical responsibility to ensure that every child has access to quality education. In Kenya, most children in arid and semi-arid areas encounter insurmountable obstacles to accessing quality education. Some of these obstacles include perennial drought, insecurity, retrogressive cultural practices, and nomadism. These obstacles make it difficult for these students to compete for the few resources in Kenya. Many of them do not complete their primary education and those who do perform poorly in national examinations like the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). This has resulted in a cycle of poverty in these areas.

The National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (NACONEK) has initiated innovative projects aimed at addressing challenges of equity, access, and quality. This is through a program referred to as NACONEK Integrated Water, Food and Energy for Sustainable Schools (NIWFESS). NIWFESS aspires to provide basic essentials for the child like drinking water, adequate and nutritious food, and water for sanitation and hygiene. The program also provides teenage girls with menstrual hygiene kits. Some other innovative projects include the establishment of Low-Cost Boarding Schools and Mobile Schools in underserved, remote areas.

Low-Cost Boarding School

NACONEK has established Low-Cost Boarding Schools as safe spaces for learners faced by challenges of the nomadic lifestyle. These schools serve as a preventive measure against early marriages for girls, who are often forced into marriage at an immature age. The government funds this initiative alongside development partners.

Mobile Schools Initiative

Mobile Schools is a community-led initiative that provides a flexible model of education that is well suited to the nomadic pastoralist lifestyle. They are temporary sites erected to serve as classrooms. This unique intervention requires teachers to be equipped with a unique set of teaching skills and learning materials to enable them to teach in a mobile set up.

COVID-19 Pandemic and New Initiatives

Great gains had been achieved since 2015 through the Low-Cost Boarding school and the Mobile Schools initiatives. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many of these gains were lost. The prolonged closure of school and financial drawbacks that resulted from the pandemic exposed learners to early marriages, forced labor, and a lack of motivation to return to schools when they reopened. According to a joint survey conducted by NACONEK and UNICEF in June 2021, around 70% of Kenya’s learners had dropped out of school due to challenges of the pandemic.

Kenya’s government sought to minimize education disruption during the pandemic by establishing “the Kenya Education Cloud.” Through this initiative, lessons were aired by television and radio, but learners in arid and semi-arid areas lacked internet connections and electricity—and thus were left out. The government has since worked with development partners to introduce solar-powered radios to remote areas for the transmission of lessons. This has been effective, enhancing learning in literacy and numeracy. The radios have also helped support accelerated learning programs in the region.

The government is also planning an initiative to be carried out in the 2022-2023 strategic plan which will establish offline Learning Resource Centers and Mobile Caravans. These learning centers will use offline internet connectivity to serve several remote schools. This initiative will essentially upgrade mobile schools, turning them into containerized learning centers strategically placed in nomadic pathways. These centers will be well-equipped to address skill development for out of school youth as well as learning centers for basic education.

There are still some challenges requiring additional action to prepare children belonging to nomadic groups to fairly compete with the rest of the children in the nation. Such affirmative action should consider the underlying factors that work against these children’s success such as lack of clean water, food insecurity, oppressive gender roles, ethnic and external conflicts, and inadequate teachers. Moreover, as we seek to embrace the breadth of skills that are inclusive, all innovations should be gender sensitive and appreciative of cultural diversity.

About
Emis M. Njeru
:
Emis M. Mjeru is the Deputy to the CEO, National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (NACONEK).
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.