By Obegi Malack
A report by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Global Education Monitoring (GEM), which covers Sub-Saharan Africa has indicated that an estimated 1.8 million Kenyan children aged between six and 18 years have either dropped out of school or have never been in school.
The report released this week reveals that children between the ages of 12 to 17 are the most affected with the impact being felt at the enrolment of upper secondary unlike primary and lower primary where there have been no effect.
The report shows that majority of the children who dropped out of school or are not willing to go back and prefer to be recruited in grazing fields, market places, public transport businesses, on the streets and in entertainment joints.
The report indicates that Kenya has filled important gaps on large out-of-school numbers which keeps dropping.
According to the data, 244 million children are out of schools worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest percentage. It has 98 million children still not in school. It is also the only region where this number is rising.
“Since 2009, in sub-Saharan Africa, the out-of-school population has increased by 20 million, reaching 98 million in 2021,” the report indicates.
“No one can accept this situation,” said Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO Director-General, underlining the need to respect every child’s right to education.
“In view of these results, the objective of quality education for all by 2030, set by the United Nations, risks not being achieved,” she warned.
She added that there is need for a global mobilization to place education at the top of the international agenda.
A more encouraging development is that the global gap between the percentage of boys and girls who drop out of school has been reduced.
In the year 2000, the gender gap was 2.5 percentage points among primary school age children, and 3.9 percentage points among their upper secondary school counterparts.
These gaps have been reduced to zero although regional disparities persist.
UNESCO’s Assistant-Director General for Education Stefania Giannini said global out of school numbers are lower than they thought.
“Too many children are still missing out. Countries have committed to benchmarks to slash out-of-school numbers by over half by 2030,’ said Giannini.
Manos Antoninis, Director of the Global Education Monitoring, warned of the double-edged crisis currently affecting education which is learning crisis and a budgetary crisis.
‘‘We must step up our support for those who are being deprived of their opportunities, keeping a watchful eye on those who have struggled on their return after Covid-related school closures,” said Antoninis.
Conflict and political turmoil in various parts of Africa and effects of Covid-19 and drought are among factors that have contributed in limiting opportunities for parents to send children to school.
