Why Kenya?
In Kenya - only 60% of students are enrolled in Secondary Education. Worse, their attendance rate is only 41%.
Global Education Fund supports Kenyan organizations working to develop youth in their country. GEF concentrates on secondary age students living in poverty and effective approaches to developing leadership and other skills essential for these youth to lead productive and independent lives.
While access to education has improved, learning levels remain low.
Primary school enrollment increased from 63% to 84 % in Kenya between 1999 and 2011. Overall enrollment rates for secondary went from 38% to 60% during the same period. However, only 19% of sixth grade pupils are reading at grade level, and this low level persists through secondary school. The government provides free public schooling only up to 8th grade. After that, students must rely on scholarships or their family to attend secondary school.
Dropout rates are high, especially for girls.
This financial challenge hits poor communities the hardest, with school fees for tuition, textbooks, uniforms and supplies often forcing children, especially girls, to drop out. According to a 2014 report by a Task Force on improving the performance of public primary schools, commissioned by Nairobi County’s Governor, Evans Kidero, the transition rate from primary to secondary schools in the city was at an all time low. Only 50% of pupils who complete standard 8 proceed to secondary school due to lack of school fees or insufficient facilities. This is worrying because we know that just over 23% of girls with only a primary school education are mothers compared to 10% of those who have a secondary school education or higher.
Quality education is lacking in many schools.
Many of those already in school do not acquire the skills needed to gain access to the job market and to become leaders and productive members of their communities. Rote learning is still too often the accepted mode of teaching, where critical thinking, problem solving and practical skills applicable to sustaining livelihoods is missing. Leadership skills training and experiential learning are proven, evidence-based methods to meet that need.
Global Education Fund in Kenya
GEF Kenya. Global Education Fund initiated work in Kenya in 2007 by establishing a leadership and scholarship program for urban youth living in Nairobi, in the slum community of Embakasi. In 2012, GEF institutionalized this work by creating an independent entity – Global Education Fund Kenya (GEF Kenya) – with its own local board and governance structure. Since then, GEF Kenya has continued to operate a competitive scholarship, leadership, and mentoring initiative, called the Young Leaders program, for girls and boys who otherwise would be unable to enroll in and finish secondary school. in 2013, GEF Kenya created a database of past and present Young Leaders to enable ongoing monitoring and tracking of the youth as part of its broader monitoring and evaluation system.
Despite the many significant barriers to their success, GEF Kenya scholars continue to achieve at higher levels than their peers locally and nationally. 100 percent of GEF Kenya scholars (29) graduated in 2013 – consistent with prior years. These 2013 graduates also had strong results on Kenya’s national, standardized test – the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) – improving over previous years results.
- Of the top six GEF students who had either an A- or B+ all were girls.
- All GEF graduates achieved exam scores that allow them to enroll in university (C+ and above) or in an accredited professional (C- and above) or vocational course (D and above).
- 55 percent of the graduates scored a C+ or better on the KCSE, contrasting with national level results of 27 percent and local results within Embakasi District (where our students come from) of only 13 percent.
The Facts
| Achievement | Average Kenyan Student | Average Embakasi Student | GEF Kenya Scholar |
| Complete secondary school | 8.5% | NA | 100% |
| Pass national KCSE exam with C- or above and qualify for professional courses (nursing, teaching, police, armed forces) | 52% | 29% | 86% |
| Qualify for entry to a wide variety of university courses with C+ or above on KCSE | 28% | 13% | 55% |
