Free Primary Education and Implementation in Kenya

Abstract

Free primary education policy has substantially increased school enrollment rates in Sub-Saharan African countries. The success and sustainability depend on teachers' perception, motivation, and proper implementation of the policy in the classroom. Few studies focus on teachers' experiences and challenges in the process of implementing the policy. The current study presents theoretical reviews using the "bottom-up," "top-down," and incremental policy frameworks. The study used a desk review of the documents from the Ministry of Education and other published materials from an Education Research Program in Kenya. Findings suggest that there is no adequate empirical study to support the views and assertions concerning teachers' experiences and motivation toward the implementation of free universal primary education policy in Kenya. There is a need for empirical research and programs to understand teachers' experiences and challenges in translating education policy into practices.

Reflections of Teachers in the FPE Era

“…In that way, the teachers would be able to share the lessons learnt with the education officials thereby enriching teaching experience. In so doing, such a teacher who finds himself in a classroom with 40 students will find ways of balancing all the students' needs, individual ability levels, in the process of classroom instruction (Abuya et al, 2015). Teacher narratives also focused on overcrowding as one of the most important challenges they faced in the classroom.…”

Theory versus Pragmatism: Quest of Achieving Academic Objectives in Kenyan Universities

“…At the beginning of the millennium, countries across the globe came together and agreed to accomplish United Nations Millennium Development Goals; with education being one of it (WHO, 2018). In doing so, Kenya spearheaded its own formula of attaining these goals, through the introduction of free primary education (FPE), which had a high affinity for increased accessibility to learning; and continuous increase in the number of public universities (Abuya, Admassu & Ngware, 2015). This was further followed by the establishment of the vision 2030, whose success is majorly pegged on skilled human labour, with innovation, research, and technology as its key pillars (Kochore, 2016).…”

Privatization of early childhood education (ECE): Implications for social justice in Nepal and Kenya

“…As a whole, for-profit private schools in Kenya increased tremendously during the 1980s and 1990s because of the government’s Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) that reduced funding for public education (Oketch et al., 2010). Additional proliferation occurred in the early 2000 following the government’s re-introduction of free primary education (FPE) aimed at providing ‘opportunities to all school age children to gain access to quality education for a full cycle of basic education’ (Abuya et al, 2015: 2). (Un)intentionally, FPE caused a decline in ‘quality of education due to a massive surge in enrollment, overcrowding of classrooms (as high as 1:150 in some schools), and lack of textbooks and shortage of trained teachers’ (Abuya et.al., 2015: 2).…”

“…Additional proliferation occurred in the early 2000 following the government’s re-introduction of free primary education (FPE) aimed at providing ‘opportunities to all school age children to gain access to quality education for a full cycle of basic education’ (Abuya et al, 2015: 2). (Un)intentionally, FPE caused a decline in ‘quality of education due to a massive surge in enrollment, overcrowding of classrooms (as high as 1:150 in some schools), and lack of textbooks and shortage of trained teachers’ (Abuya et.al., 2015: 2). Consequently, many parents searched for educational alternatives in private schools, thus leading to the current mushrooming of for-profit private schools at all levels of education (Edwards, Klees and Wildish, 2017; Heyneman and Stern, 2014).…”