Increasing Access and Participation of Pastoralist Communities in Primary Education in Kenya

Abstract

This study shows how the provision of educational facilities in Kenya since the colonial era has been skewed in favour of densely populated agricultural communities. It analyses interventions to redress the resultant imbalances, such as the school-fees waiver, free primary education, the construction of boarding schools, and school feeding programmes. These measures are shown to have had little impact on increasing access and participation of pastoralist communities in primary education; for they have usually been introduced without serious consideration of the prevailing socio-economic conditions. It is proposed here that for their future development, the government needs to articulate clearer policies and involve such communities in planning as well as incorporate elements of their existing traditional education institutions.