Free primary education was introduced by the Kenyan government in January 2003. While this dramatically improved access to education for the children of Kenya, it was largely an unfunded mandate. Enrollment at schools throughout the country expanded overnight by several hundred percent, without commensurate increases in teaching staff and school budgets. In 2005 UNESCO carried out an assessment of Kenya’s free primary education program, which found that increased student numbers, teacher shortages, and delays in payment of funds, among other things, threatened the success of the program.
In Lwala, where most families do not consider education of girls a financial priority, free primary education dramatically increased the number of girls in school. However, a host of challenges surrounding adolescence, from the simple challenges of managing menstrual periods without facilities to the complex challenges of families expecting adolescent girls to manage their households, have kept graduation rates among girls very low. For those girls that do graduate from primary school, the few families that have the means to pay for secondary school are far more likely to send their boys to secondary school than their girls.
In light of these challenges, the LCA established the education project, which has now sent 23 talented young people to secondary school.
The LCA has also helped create a library at Lwala Primary School, and is participating in an adult education program in the area.
SECONDARY EDUCATION PROGRAM
The LCA’s education program is managed in Lwala by the Lwala Village Education Committee. They choose students based on academic promise, with a background requirement of financial need. The need requirement excludes few students in Lwala since very few families have the means to send their children to secondary school, but it assures that the scholarships fund students who otherwise would not be able to attend school. Academic performance is based on students’ scores on the KPCE, a standardized exam that all students take at the end of primary school.
Once students are selected, the LVEC pays the year’s tuition directly to each student’s school, based on the school’s fee schedule. The students are accepted to particular schools according to their KPCE scores and primary school grades. The education program pays for students to attend the best school to which they are accepted. The LVEC maintains a small fund for each student that is used as additional costs come up for books, lab fees, special programs, and so on.
As of January 2008, the LCA has sent 23 students to secondary school. Each of these students is matched with a particular sponsor, and writes a letter to their sponsor each year. The total cost per student per year is $500. Meet the students.
MEDICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM
It has proven a challenge to retain qualified medical personnel in Lwala. Most educated Kenyans prefer to live in urban areas, and those who want to live in a rural area typically prefer to live in their home village. Additionally, the government ministry of health has funding from international NGOs, particularly the Clinton Foundation, to aggressively pursue medical personnel and offer them excellent salary and benefit packages and excellent job security. The LCA has pursued several avenues for improving staff retention, including offering competitive salaries and benefits and providing high quality on-site housing. Nonetheless, the need remains for qualified personnel interested in living in Lwala for the long term.
In the near future, we are planning to provide several scholarships for students from Lwala who have graduated secondary school to pursue medical education to become nurses, clinical officers, and laboratory technicians.
