By Kamadi Amata and Evans Isohe
8 out of 10 parents want their children to attained university education. This is according to research released by Zizi Afrique. According to the research many girls are also enrolling into secondary schools as compared to their boys counterpart.
”We explored aspirations by asking parents to state the highest level of education they would wish their children to attain and the perceived chances of attaining the desired level. Parents across the four sub counties have aspirations for post secondary education, with a preference for university education 84%”, said Zizi Afrique foundation director of research Mourice Mutisya.
The research has also indicated that all public schools in Nairobi are connected to electricity power which is functional. The research also says parents play a key role in school feeding program in one way or another.
The study targeted households and schools with students who sat for their KCPE in 96 randomly selected schools and 113 villages in the for sub-counties.
Lack of school uniforms and boarding fees were the major hindrances to 100% transitions of students. This is according to zizi afrique foundation.
Speaking while relearsing the research zizi afrique director of research Dr. Maurice mutisya says lack of school uniforms and boarding schools fees made students to report late to their respective schools.
He also says that lack of personal effects such as toiletries, metallic bags made 90% of students to join late in schools they were placed.
The research however shows that 9 out of 10 students from who joined schools late were supported by households. Parents have also been urged to differentiate between perceptions and reality enables while dealing with transitions.
Among the enablers that has made more pupils join schools include government fundings through capitation, scholarships, agencies such as support from relatives, harambees and alumni. The other enabler is private players such as cooperatives and CBOs.
”The overall enrolment of students from grade 1 to grade 8 is 13,884 in Cheptais, 23,606 in Dagoretti, 5,866 in Kahuro and 5,822 in Sololo”, said the report.
The research which had a sample size if 2,843 children and households, 113 village elders and 96 participating schools, also indicated that on average, Kahuro, in Muranga county county had the lowest school enrolment, with an average school size of 195 students per school, as compared to Dagoretti in Nairobi county with an average size of 1,475.
It noted that the school sizes helped in understanding the demands for school inputs and infrastructure, as well as demand for secondary education space.
In terms of teacher to student ratio, Dagoretti had the highest pupil to teacher ratio at 64 compared to Kahuro In Muranga which had the lowest at 20.
The research tracked 6,409 candidates reaching 6,216 which translates to 97% on secondary school transition. kahuro sub county emerged the highest with 98% transition rate. However Sololo in Marsabit county had the lowest transition at 91%.
During the launch of the report in Dagoretti, a number of factors hindering the 1005 transitions were observed. The factors were both positive and negative.
“The enables to secondary schools trasition tendered to focus on iniciatives existing in the systems to minimize cost barries. Household perceived the national government constituency development fund NCDF, 67% bursaries by county government 47%, and scholarship by corporates 42% as the main enables for secondary schools trasition”, read the report.
It is however good to be noted that during the tracking, more than 90% of the students were supported by their households to join secondary schools, and only less than 10% were supported by NGCDF and county government.
Despite effects put in place to ensure that all pupils trasist to secondary schools there were barries. The most prominent barries to secondary schools transitions as cited by the households, school and villages heads were cost of schooling, specifically lack of boarding fees at 35% and resource to acquire school uniforms and personal effects at 43%, drugs and substance use, peer presure and poor performance of the child.
Other barriers included early marriage, migration, join polytechnic/TVET and repeated.
