The national educational system has been based on an 8/4/4 system since the late 1980’s: 8 years of compulsory primary education (beginning at age 6), 4 years at secondary level, and 4 years of higher education. Entrance into secondary school is contingent upon obtaining the Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education by passing a national exam.
Additionally, there is a fairly large private school sector catering for the middle and upper classes which generally follows the British education system post primary school years.
Out of all children in Kenya about 85 percent of children attend primary school, 24 percent attend secondary school, and 2 percent attend higher education institutions.
In 1963 the Kenyan government promised free primary education to its people. This promise did not take effect until 2003.
Key educational issues
Over subscription at Primary level:
Now that education is free, attendance has increased and there is a shortage of teachers and classrooms with children not getting sufficient attention from teachers due to the overcrowding of classrooms. This is a result of both children attending that could not afford to before, and children being taken out of lower-tier private schools in order to take advantage of free education.
The majority of poor Kenyans do not get beyond primary school: While the basic literacy and numeracy skills learnt at primary school are immensely important, they are not enough to guarantee a reasonable living, and are certainly not sufficient to enable young rural Kenyans to break out of the poverty cycle and to find employment beyond what their parents could find.
Lack of attendance: Since primary education became free, over one million extra children have enrolled in school. However, the goal of getting all primary age children into school is still some way off; around 750,000 children remain out of school. Many are girls, those affected by HIV/AIDS and working children.
Lack of materials: Although the provision of school infrastructure and learning materials has improved over recent years, the vast majority of children cannot afford to buy their own textbooks or pencils.
