Attainment of basic education for all by 2015: from rhetoric chimera to practice in kenya

Despite the commitment of world countries to achieving Education for All (EFA) by 2015, many of them, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, are not likely to meet this target by the agreed date. Will Kenya be among the nations likely to achieve this target? Spurred by the current post-2015 debate and signals by the report of the High –Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Agenda of the United Nations (2013) that that there is an education, learning and skills crisis globally, this paper analyzes the current policies, interventions and incentives put in place by the Government of Kenya and profiles the progress made so far towards achievement of the EFA goals. The paper uses a combination of secondary sources from Government documents and other international sources in combination with primary research to examine reality of whether or not the country is on track to achieving EFA by 2015. The analyses use Gross and Net Enrolment ratios (GERs and NERs) by region and gender. The results show that Kenya has made good progress judging by the impressive GERs and NERs at the national level. The NERs are fairly stable and higher than 100%, indicating that EFA has been achieved at this level and hence the country is progressing well. However, when these statistics are unpacked at regional level and examined with a gender lens, then conspicuously wide and severe regional and gender disparities emerge. They show both regional and gender differences as the NERs for females are lower than those for males in some geographic areas, indicating that more males are attending school. The disadvantaged regions are located in the ASAL counties especially among nomadic communities and urban slums. It is recommended that Kenya needs to accelerate the implementation of the adroitly formulated policies and initiatives geared towards eliminating barriers to equity and quality of education, and institute concerted and collaborative approaches directed towards the translation of policies from mere rhetoric chimera to practice in order to achieve the EFA goals by the set deadline of 2015.