What We Do - Education
38 million children across sub Saharan Africa still do not attend primary school (United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report, 2008). Poverty and the availability of water impacts on all aspects of human development, including access to education. The time spent by children gathering water or being sick with water related diseases decreases attendance and enrolment in education, especially amongst girls.
While Kenya, Uganda and Ghana have all introduced free Universal Primary Education, these countries continue to struggle to provide good quality primary education. Severely overcrowded classrooms, a lack of basic educational materials and infrastructure and poorly paid and unmotivated teachers, remain the norm. Many children, particularly young girls, end up dropping out of school due to the poor educational environment, a lack of gender sensitive facilities and negative cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation and Early Marriage.
Recognising these critical linkages, Aidlink’s partners in Uganda and Kenya have all adopted an integrated approach to increasing primary school enrolment and attendance rates. This holistic approach includes improving the infrastructure in schools, such as providing water and latrines and the creation of more girl and child friendly learning environments. In addition, an important element of the programmes is creating awareness in the community about the importance of education. This is achieved through training school management committees, boards of management, parent teacher committees and local leaders. As result of these interventions, enrolment and attendance has increased in all programme areas.
Equal access to education for girls and boys
In 2004, the Aidlink partners the Girl Child Network (GCN) carried out a research to analyze the status of gender equity and equality in the Free Primary Education sector in Kenya, (The Status of Gender Equity and Equality in Free Primary Education in Kenya). One of the objectives of the research was to find out the impact that the Free Primary Education initiative had on the enrolment of girls and also to assess the status of gender equality in the schools. (More)
(The findings revealed that as much as enrolment of girls had increased, the number of boys was still significantly high as compared to that of the girls particularly in the higher school classes. Girls were also disadvantaged in relation to retention, performance and transition in school in comparison to their boy counterparts.
Among the significant contributing factors to this status was lack of hygienic sanitary towels to manage their menses and gender friendly sanitation facilities in schools. Harmful cultural practices such as early marriage and female genital mutilation particularly among the pastoralists’ communities (Cushitic community in North Eastern and the Maasai community) were also contributing factors to the low levels of girls’ participation in education.
In response to the gaps identified in the research, GCN designed the Kajiado school programmes that aimed to enhance gender friendly and safe learning environment for girls and boys in primary schools through the provision of gender friendly sanitation facilities and elimination of negative cultural practices that negate the process of girls attaining their right to education.
Model Schools and pilot agriculture projects in Uganda
Aidlink is supporting Caritas MADDO’s Universal Primary Education (UPE) model school project which is being rolled out in phases over a 5 year period across the 47 parishes of the Diocese of Masaka in Masaka District, Central Uganda. (More)
(The purpose is to improve the learning environment in each of the model schools by strengthening the school managements, improving facilities and enhancing the capacity of the Diocese Education Secretariat to support the development and maintenance of primary schools. Year one of the programme has focused on the construction of water and sanitation facilities in 7 schools selected by the communities in the parishes. All targeted schools received support on capacity building and emphasised community involvement. The Model Schools programme was developed based on the findings of a Needs Assessment of Primary Schools in Masaka Diocese in 2005.
The EMESCO Development Foundation in Uganda is also working closely with communities and schools in its integrated approach to development. In 2010, EMESCO received funding from the Church of Ireland Bishop’s Appeal to initiate a pilot project of introducing practical agricultural training into the school curriculum of 25 schools in Buyanja sub country, Kibaale District. By the end of the year, 15,000 students will have benefitted through enhanced training in sustainable organic agriculture techniques and will have improved diets as a result of consuming the fresh produce from the new gardens in the schools.
Girl Child Network – Kajiado Schools Programme
The main goal of the programme is to improve access to and participation in primary education for young girls through the provision of appropriate sanitation facilities and sanitary towels in 37 primary schools in Kajiado district, Kenya. The programme being implemented by the Girl Child Network is making excellent progress towards its objectives. (More)
The construction of sanitation facilities such as water tanks and girl friendly latrines in the first year of the programme has improved participation of girls and boys in education - enrolment of girls and boys in schools in Kajiado has already increased by 25%. 30 girls who had dropped out of school have re-entered and are now participating in school activities. Girls are reported to be more confident and have increased self esteem. The improved confidence levels amongst girls have led to improved academic and extra curriculum performance in school. Girls are now able to compete with boys on an almost equal platform. For example, at Iloodariak primary school, 4 class eights girls ranked in the top ten which has not been the case for the last 5 years.
The programme continues to sensitise the wider school community on the importance and use of sanitary towels. Over 2,500 girls in 37 schools in Kajiado district have received a year’s supply of sanitary towels. The sanitary towel distribution is accompanied by a comprehensive awareness raising intervention dealing with issues relating to sexuality/adolescence, hygiene and the rights of the child.
The advocacy component of the programme involves lobbying the Government of Kenya to adopt a policy of free provision of sanitary towels as part of the free primary schools programme nationwide. The GCN also collaborates with the private sector (Proctor & Gamble and Barclays Bank) for the nationwide distribution of sanitary towels. GCN co-chairs the National Sanitary-towels Steering Committee with the Ministry of Education (which was established as a result of GCN lobbying). The committee continues to lobby for bigger budgetary allocation for sanitary towels in the national budget of the government of Kenya.
Capacity building of local communities
Capacity building of school management committees and local communities is a critical element of the education programmes. In 2009, the Girl Child Network trained 58 School Management Committees (SMCs) on the concept of child friendly schools and various ways of making schools environment inclusive for all. (More)
(The training involved the rights of the child, the impact of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on the health and education of girls and the Sexual Offences Act. The SMCs also had capacity building in the area of resource mobilisation, prioritising girls’ issues and gender budgeting in schools. GCN has also developed a child protection ‘Standard Guidelines on Child Protection’ , which is currently being rolled out to GCN member organisations and institutions across Kenya.
EMESCO’s ICDP programme in Buyaga County sees the role of schools in the communities as being central to the project implementation - areas where there is a primary school are therefore, prioritised. As mentioned in the water and sanitation narrative, EMESCO has also worked closely with the school structures to sensitise on the importance of child focused schools. The EMESCO sanitation programme reflects this sensitivity in the inclusion of girl friendly latrines in the targeted schools and the ongoing support and capacity building to the teachers and school management committees.
Caritas MADDO’s UPE model school project provided capacity building for the school management committees in 21 parishes to strengthen their long term planning capability. There is an increased commitment by the participants to contribute to the education of the children through providing a local contribution to the maintenance of the schools and to give school lunches to the pupils.
