‘Day of the African Child’: A gift to the Kenyan children who have never stepped in school

Like any other year, we will celebrate the International Day of the African Child on the 16^th June. In Kenya, these commemorations are used to highlight the plight of children, taking count of the progress made in enabling the various children rights. In the past, we have highlighted the plight of orphans, homeless children and those who live on the streets, children under juvenile justice, girls victimized by harmful cultural practices and children with disabilities among others. We have also heard and read about children not accessing their right to education. As we mark the Day of the African Child this year, we propose that we give some consideration, to Kenyan children who have never stepped foot in school.

Evidence has been presented severally of children who have dropped out of school, but hardly have we been told of children who have never listened to a teacher. The Uwezo survey conducted in November 2015 revealed that nationally, two percent of all Kenyan children aged 10 to 16 years have never seen the inside of a classroom, with negligible difference between boys and girls. There were more rural than urban children (2.6%). Children from poor families were 9 times more likely to belong to this category than children from non-poor families. From the face of it, this number may look small, but the mean only tells a small part of the story.

Let’s take a walk to our northern county of Marsabit. Come, let’s get deeper to Chalbi Sub-county. Here, on a school day, we meet many girls walking to look for water or herding goats. Boys are invisible until the evening, because they may have walked longer off-road with the camels. In this district, a half of all children aged 10 to 16 years have never enrolled at any school. They bypass the schools looking for water, or may even have entered the school compound to herd their animals, or attend a village ceremony, but they have never sat in a classroom. A good number of the girls within this age are now mothers. We leave Chalbi with more questions than answers. What goes on in the mind of a young person in this age group, who has never listened to a teacher? How do they feel when presented with an SMS, the Koran or Bible? What do they think of their siblings and neighbors who speak other languages learnt at school? What aspirations do they hold, in a world so prejudiced by print information?

The story is similar in Samburu East, Ijara, East Pokot and Turkana North sub-counties. In Kenya’s arid north, even the children who do attend school may not be much better. In Chalbi, one in three of the children in standard three can neither read an English word nor do the most basic addition. These children school without learning, and in many ways share in the worries and uncertainties of their non-schooling friends. They do not learn, because they may have walked very long distances to school and already arrive exhausted, while others skip several meals and are unable to concentrate. Some schools lack the very basic learning inputs, including teachers. Given that quality education is a constitutional right in Kenya, who really cares about these children?

At the moment, our focus is on the August 8^th general elections. The fact is that however, majority of the voters in Chalbi will receive the ballot paper, and if lucky, recognize the colour of their party or the photo of their candidate, because they will not be able to read their names. We have heard the promises of the Jubilee Party and NASA, that Secondary School will be free. It could be, but a half of the eligible children in these counties will not care about it, because they cannot even dream about it. They first need equalizing of opportunity to attend primary school, so that they may benefit from secondary schooling.

As we celebrate this day in 2017, the electoral promises for Kenya’s education warrant reconsideration. The political effort to improve education hardly reaches those that need it most. What if, in the spirit of the African Child, the Jubilee Party and NASA turned their eye to the Kenyan children who have never seen a teacher? What if the effort focuses on providing access and improving quality for the poor and the excluded? Would this, perhaps, get Uhuru and Raila more votes?