Since 2003, primary school in Kenya is free. However, school uniforms, shoes, textbooks and lunch costs must be covered by the students themselves, which many families cannot afford. Another problem is the lack of public schools in slums, as these regions are not recognized as official districts. Even if families could pay school fees, there are just not enough schools for their kids to go to.
THE KENYAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
The Kenyan school system consists of two sections: the partly state-funded primary school and the purely privately funded secondary school. Children attend primary school for eight years before they can apply for secondary school. An examination at the end of the eighth school year is used to measure the children against each other, as there are only a few coveted places at secondary school.
In the four years of Form Four, pupils then qualify for college. Here too, the children are constantly compared with each other in league tables so that they can then apply for college or university. In many cases, college is inserted as an intermediate stage to university, as a qualification, so to speak.
The main problem is that after primary school, which should theoretically be state-funded, all costs for “higher” education have to be borne by the parents or the pupil/student themselves. As this is too much of a financial burden for most families, most children drop out of the school system after the eighth grade. Unfortunately, education in Kenya is still a matter of the purse and therefore widens the gap between rich and poor.
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SCHOOL
If you’re going to a private school in Germany you are usually considered a wealthy person, that is able to afford the high tuition fees. In Kenya this is different.
Due to the lack of public schools in slums, a large number of “private schools” are being established. Unfortunately, however, these primary schools are far from good quality education: Unqualified teachers who mostly just graduated from secondary school themselves hold their classes in tiny tin huts. However, these schools are often the only option for kids from low-income families to get an education at all. The low quality education makes it hard for these kids to qualify for secondary school though and if they happen do to so, to keep up with other students in secondary school. Without a good basic education in primary school it is almost impossible to graduate from secondary school.
However, there is a third type of school in Kenya: The so-called organization schools, which are run and supported by larger organizations, such as churches and associations. Here, teachers have higher degrees and offer good quality education, often even better than in public schools. Despite the financial support by individual organizations, the school fees are too high for many families and cannot be covered.
We believe in the power of high quality education and therefore transfer all our students to these organizational schools. We want to make sure that every child has the opportunity to exploit its full potential. This is why we focus on fewer children and quality instead of quantity.
With our mentorship program, we ensure that our scholarship holders receive support throughout the year alongside their school education. To ensure this, our Kenyan team meets once a week with our full scholarship holders and other children at St. John’s School in Korogocho. As part of the program, various topics from the children’s and young people’s environment are dealt with, but also their individual career aspirations are explored in greater depth and their visions for the future are strengthened. The program gives us the opportunity to identify problems and conflicts directly and respond to them.
East African countries are among the most developed ones in Africa. They are nevertheless affected by the ever widening gap between rich and poor. Kenya in particular is currently suffering more and more economically, because terrorism from Boko Haram is drastically decreasing the number of tourists each year.
Nairobi, capital of Kenya, is home to the most famous slum in the world Kibera and many others at the border of the city Among them is Korogocho, the third largest slum of the country, surrounded by the municipal landfill. Due to the size of this slum, many different projects, initiated by the residents themselves have made positive changes within the slum. Smiles Africa Charity also supports these initiatives by providing education and information with the aim to contribute to an improvement and change of life circumstances.