PROCESSES OF ADOPTING EFA GOALS:PROCESSES
THE KENYAN EXPERIENCE

National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)
Seminar Presentation
Fatuma Chege
24-03-2006

Contextualising EFA in Kenya
Long history of EFA discourse- 1961… UNESCO sponsored Addis Ababa conference of African States on the“Development of Education in Africa” (1961) set 1980 as the year when all African
states would achieve UPE (eradicate ignorance, disease & poverty)-1968… Education Act published -- primary education for all made responsibility of GOK-1970… Primary education lost to secondary, technical & tertiary education
The contribution of education to the development of skilled andeducated (human resource) is particularly important for Kenya
at this time. On purely economic grounds, the development ofprimary education cannot be given a high priority as secondary,technical and higher education (GOK, 1970, p.306).

-1970-1974… Abolishment of fees in 10 ASAL districts & provision of boarding primaryschools for pastoral communities increased primary school access-1974-79… Free primary education for all decree meant to enhance UPE-flopped due lack of government capitation-failure of alternative funding through school committees and PTAs
e.g. introduction of building fund was higher than school fees & miltated against UPE-1980s… economic recession, high unemployment posed futher challenges for UPE

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-1985… change from 7-4-2 to 8-4-4 education system to address school leaver
unemployment-self-reliance through self-employment-enhance numeracy & literacy curricular for class 1-6-vocationalise & curriculum for Class 7-8 with practical skills (e.g.
metal/woodwork, carpentry, home science among others)
CHALLENGES POSED 8-4-4
Educational costs increased impacted on family economies & government
Need for additional infrastructure (classrooms, workshops, home-science rooms, labs…
Training of new teachers for technical and vocational subjects
Additional 12,000 teachers for the additional class 8
EFFECTSLowered quality of basic cognitive skills ---much time in teaching vocational subjects
Impediment of EFA due to increased dropout plus low transition & completion rates
WAY FORWARD
1988… introduction of Structural Adjustment programmes (SAPS) and user fees
Cost sharing introduced irrespective of poverty levels

Government … provided only costs of teacher salaries, administration & limited
school facilities Parents … paid tuition, books, activity & examinations fees Communities … provide maintain physical infrastructure

EFFECTSThe Kenya government legitimized the death of UPE from external pressures Many children left school Need to have alternative access to schooling

Non-formal Education (NFE) and Adult Education (AE)NFE compared to adult education, received little government support

NOTES
 Gender as a focus in UPE/EFA did not feature until the 1980s GOK Development Plans
 Special education featured from 1968 but enrolment remained less than 3%

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Education Activities after Jomtien WCEFA 1990)-1991… National Seminar on Promotion of Basic Education and Literacy (Nyeri)-1992… National Seminar on Post-Literacy Strategies (Nakuru)-1994… National Conference on EFA (Kisumu)-1994… Symposium on Education for the Girl Child (Machakos)
SUPPORT FOR EFA ACTIVITIESWorld BankUN Agencies … World Food Programme, UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO.
CBOs and CSOs e.g. Action Aid, Children Christian Fund (CCF) and Care Kenya
DWINDLING OF EFA ACTIVITIES BY MID-1990S
 Poor government poliy on EFA
 Low support from funding agencies and organizations
REAWAKENING OF EFA CONCERNS TOWARDS DARKAR CONFERENCE OF 2000
 Formulation of the Master Plan on Education and Training, 1997-2010
 EFA assessment documents prepared Participation in the regional EFA conference in Johannesburg
 EFA handbook produced and referred to as the ‘wake up call’ articulating issues andchallenges facing EFA in Kenya & setting out an overall framework of approach

SERIOUS BACKFIRE Did not qualify for EFA financial assistance programme by the Commonwealth
Education Fund and the World Bank.
 NeededNational EFA Plans of Action,
UPE Policies, Sector-Wide Approach to Programming integrated to macro economic plan

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)KENYA ON EFA COMPLIANCE JOURNEY (2001 and 2005)

2003- Launched Poverty Reduction Paper

2003 January launched FPE --- new government honoured campaign pledgeFPE attracts historical donor fundingEducation sector reviews & national action plans completed

2004 National Conference on Education, Training and Research

Sessional paper No1 of 2005 outlining policy framework for education research andtraining
 Completion of Kenya Education Sector Support Programme (KESSP) 2005-2010
 Kenya got a nod of approval from funding partners
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KENYA`S NEW FRAMEWORK FOR EDUCATION PLANNING AND
IMPLEMENTATION Kenya Education Sector Support Programme KESSP) Framework for formulating education policies and costing through sector-wide
approach (SWAp)
 KESSP steered Kenya to join fast track initiative countries (expedite realisation of
EFA and MDGs on UPE) Growing role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in adoption & domestication of
EFA goals
 Formation of national coalitions and networks (Pamoja Kenya, Elimu Yetu,
ANCEFA & others)

DOMESTICATING THE GLOBALLY ACCEPTED EFA GOALS----GRIPS COLLABORATIVE PROJECT IN EASTERN AFRICA---THE RESEARCH PROCESSPart of a broader regional process
Identifying assistant researchers

Two senior researchers (PhD) --female
Four assistants (Masters), 2 female, 2 male

Training the researchers on qualitative research (One day workshop)Interview, observation, documentary analysis
Familiarisation with interview guideInterview simulation

 Unpacking to three separate instruments

Identifying the potential subjects
 Development of loosely defined sampling frame Selecting potential sample
 Actual sample
MoEST 5
Donors 5
CSOs 14

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RESEARCH SUBJECTS
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ACTION AID… educational child rights
coordinator (Male)
AFRICAN NETWORK CAMPAIGN ON
EDUCATION FOR ALL (ANCEFA)…
Capacity Building Coordinator
Civil Society Campaign On MDGSKenya…. National Coordinator
Commonwealth Education Fund
C.E.F… Coordinator (Male)COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL(KENYA) Project Facilitator (male)
CONCERN WORLDWIDE KENYACountry Director (Male)ELIMU YETU COALITION.. Coordinator(Male)
Girl Child Network … Senior Programme
Officer (Male)KAACR … Deputy Director (Male)KENYA ADULT EDUCATIONASSOCIATION (KAEA) INTERVIEW
Director (Male)KENYA SOCIETY FOR DEAF CHILDREN
Director (Male)

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MOEST Director Basic Education (Female)
MOEST Asst. Minister Education (post primarysector) (Male)
MoEST …Senior Deputy Director non formal
education NFE (Male)
MoEST… Director Non-formal Education NFE(Female)MoEST K.I.E …Deputy Director of schools
programs (Male)
Mothers’ Rural Care Of Orphans(MORCAO)… Founder Member And In Charge
Of All Projects (Female)
REACH THE CHILDREN …Education And
Other Special Programmes (Female)
SAVE THE CHILDREN SWEDEN … (Male)
Programme Officer Education (Sudan)
UNHCR INTERVIEW … Community
Development officer (Male)
UNICEF... Regional Education Adviser (Female)
University education.. Professor (Female)
University education... Professor (Male)World Bank Education Consultant (Male)

Interviews, Data Processing, Literature Review & Aanalysis

 Interviewing and literature review– concurrently
 Transcribing and processing data(reading scripts) –concurrently & interactively
 Preliminary manual analysis –concurrently & interactively
 Thematic coding and transforming data for NUD*IST
programme Generating reports and data analysis (3-day workshop)
 Feedback to assistants for continued capacity building Appraising research process (strengths and weaknesses)

5Outline of Preliminary Research Findings
 Defining EFA as distinct concept from EFA goals
Occasional confusions in distinguishing the concepts of Education for All and EFA
goals
 A couple times… EFA goals and MDGs were portrayed as synonymous in defining
EFA Often••

UPE as foundation of EFA in Kenya
UPE, Continuing Education, life-long education(See KAEA, ANCEFA, CEF, WB, CEF…)
Education for all in my own understanding is (…) giving people, children, youth, adults anopportunity to learn (and) in terms of having access to enjoy the right of basic education. And wetalk of basic education in the sense that if we look at those goals, they are goals that focus on basic
education; actually basic education, which is the focus of EFA. (Coordinator ANCEFA )

EFA… basic education that is compulsory for children and young people both in theformal and non-formal settings (Senior Programme Officer of the Girl Child Network(GCN) and WB education consultant)

EFA cont…
cont…
Inclusive education &discourse of rights
UNHCR, Save the Children… focus on disadvantaged, vulnerable and disability
A global strategy that ensures provision of education to each and every
individual as their basic right. Here we are looking at each basic education
where all children, whether they have any special problem whether they
have disability, whether from poor countries or poor background, they areable to access education. I think that is how I look in my own simple
understanding (,EPO Kenya-based Save the Children).
I think essentially when we talk of education for all; we are talking about an all inclusive education andeducation that takes care of all sectors of the society, all the way from early childhood, non-formal, adulteducation, continuing education, primary education. So is basically that education that is inclusive and does
not leave out any body. It assumes that everybody fundamentally has a right to education (Director EYC).
Basic education, (…) it is in away, is kind of a right, that we feel that it should be extended
to as many, many Kenyans as possible, especially the children (…) to me is the definitionof Education for All, where in this sense, education is provided irrespective of difference ofcommunity or race… irrespective of socio-economic status; that they (people) are provided
with the minimum basic education (…) (KIE Deputy Director of Schools)

6Rights Discourse cont…
cont…
Education for all, in my own understanding is that, every child has a right to education
irrespective of gender; irrespective of ethnicity, class, any form of division or difference
including disability. So… to me, what it means is that every child has a right to education(UNICEF Regional Education Advisor, ESARO).

Quality education beyond primary (Concern Ww, CEF, Compassion Intnl)(,,,) we are also saying education may be broader than just primary education, and here we arelooking at adult literacy and basically we are encouraging that at least we should have a literatesociety within the broader education goals. Basically EFA from our perspective revolves aroundthose issues (Project Facilitator of Compassion International).
Data reveals that there were many points of convergence in the conceptualisation of EFA
among CSOs, donors and MoEST.
points of divergence often reflected unique organisational focus and the individual mission
envisaged.
MoEST also demonstrated government priorities in pursuing EFA as KIE Deputy Director of
Schools explained “it (education) will vary from one country to another depending on the
resources available, and also the kind of National philosophy that guide the education
system”

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Concept of `Education`
What is Education?
Follow-up on concept of `education`and that of `All` needed sensibility to
avoid eliciting annoyance, especiallyto subjects who had dealt with EA
comprehensively
Education as multi-dimensional
process of personal development(Life skills, knowledge, attitudes,
values) through formal/non-formal
settings,
 Broad concept, focus on future
possibilities, including further
education…
Preparation to fit in society as citizen
Development of analytical & criticalmind about life Opportunities accorded all momentsof lifeBox 1: Education is, a very broadconcept
Education is inclusive of the broad skills
and knowledge one needs to preparethem to fit better in a society. It
entails skills by way of being able toread and write, being able to do simple
calculations, and more importantly being
able to use those skills to (be) better
fitted in society; being able to be ofservice, whether it will be in the field ofhealth, in the field of agriculture, in thefield of politics. It also goes beyond theformal education acquired in formal
schools. It is that broad knowledge thatone picks, not just academic, but one
which also prepares one much better todo other things outside just being able
to read and write.
Assistant Minister of Education (postprimary)

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Concept of `All
`All``
What does `All` mean in the context of EFA?
Inclusiveness was dominant response Flexibility and fluidity –walk in and out of education settings… work, have children–learning throughout life (Director Action Aid & Concern Ww)
 Minimum package to offer everybody (KIE) New doctrine that addresses discrimination of the disadvantaged (EYC)‘All’ is like everybody… everybody… I believe that when they say EFA, meansthat every person should be given an opportunity to have an education(Education and Special Programme Officer, Reach the Children).
People of all ages from young children to adults, boys andgirls, men and women, irrespective of colour, race, religion,
health status … (Female Professor of Education)

INTERNATIONALLY AGREED UPON EFA GOALS
Seemed to test memory, sometimes eliciting uneasiness Declarations of ignorance“do not remember which one…”“I think it is the seventh goal..”Request to switch of the tape recorder to confess ignorance
 Most of MoEST respondents and one of the funding partners were

eloquent on all the goals… even the sequence Twos subjects from CSOs were clear and well informed
 Tendency to focus more on the goal (s) relevant to their mission e.g.
KAEA.. Adult literacy
Girl Child Network… gender equity and equality plus UPE
KSDC… disability, disadvantaged, marginalised

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NEWNESS OF EFA GOALS IN NATIONAL PROGRAMMESQuestion required sensitivity and sensibility to avoid embarrassing
subjects
Strikingly, no respondents addressed the idea of having clear targets as new or old
Respondents tended to talk generally rather than link the goals to their organisations
 Six respondents claimed that EFA goals were not new

The goals are just revised to make them a little muchsharper; to make them more relevant which, to make themmore timely, in the context in we find ourselves then(Director, ANCEFA).
Director KAEA: Not really. I don't see any… I don't see any (goal), which is new. I havethem here. (…) This is why … in fact before this came, KAEA was there and it was still
having the same (goals).
Interviewer: So there is no new goal?
Director KAEA: There is no new (…) thing. The only new thing to KAEA and which was
not part of what we were doing is in MDGs. That is number… number four, which was
to reduce mortality rate. That was not in our objectives. That was not in our objectives
in MDGs but now we are tying it up (Director KAEA)

 Essence of EFA remains

What is perceived as newness
may be a matter of terminology,
not the concept (Assist Minister) Old ideas are also being
interpreted in new ways e.g. thegoal on `quality` not new in
education policy (Director Basic
Education)Box 2: These ideas are brought again as if they arenew
No, no, no, it is not new. We may not have called it
EFA, but after independence (…), we all spoke
about the need to have our people educated and infact, education was one of the main services thatthe populations were crying for. In nineteen
seventy-four, Kenyatta (First President of Kenya)declared education… free in primary. I mean
education was free as away of trying to achievethat universal education. And we are doing it again.
So actually we are interested in it. I mean we havebeen interested in it; it's just that these ideas are,you know, brought again as if they are new. And
sometimes it's because maybe we want to have acommon agenda as a global community. But, youknow, there has been interest. The question iswhether or not we are provided with resources for
that; and whether or not we realize politicalcommitment to get these ideas through. That's
always a problem (Assistant Minister of
Education -post primary)9

SOME EFA GOALS ARE NEW
 UNICEF
 New mandate for UNICEF since Dakar 2000… through the UN

Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) New ways of responding to the goals e.g. institutional goals
on infrastructure INFLUENCING POLICY DECISIONS

Some respondents expressed embarrassment on the question
 Many perceived themselves as having influenced government
policy and decision-making in education sector
 Few offered concrete examples
 KAACR.. Influenced FPE policy formulation (present in all
sitting committees)

INFLUENCING POLICY CONT…
 Concern Ww. influencing policy through researchThis year we did a big study on marginalized children in Suba (to find out)
what are the factors that affect children and bring about marginalization.
(…) So we hope to publish that and to make recommendations out of it.
Hopefully that would get to the point of not only influencing national policy(but also) at the district level where we are already influencing policy(Director CWw.).
 KAACR influenced formulation of gender policy in education andformation of Gender Commission of Kenya
Let me say that KAARC as an organization has played a critical role;
first of all in the formulation of gender policy, and finally the Gender
Commission (of Kenya). But I will focus majorly on gender and for thegirl child, which brought out policy on the girls (and) the readmission ofgirls who conceive while in school (Deputy Director KAACR).

10INFLUENCING CONT…
Policies across borders
UNHCR claims Kenyan education policy influences refugee education policy in thecamps (Curriculum, teacher capacity) Teacher development for repatriation to Sudan
 UNICF claims no influence but is changing strategy through SWAP KSDC claims to have influenced special needs educationThat is for somebody else to evaluate. (However), you can say that we werefocused on ensuring that the quality of education in Kenya, particularly forthe disabled and the HI (Hearing Impaired) in particular. (…) the Ministryof Education recognizes the society as a major player in this area and we areincluded almost in every forum where education decisions are made(Director KSDC).

Difficulties influencing government policyMost ofthe CSOs claimed it was difficult to influence government policy
Current government may be more receptive to CSOs

World Bank, DfID, UNICEF … strongest
sponsors of educational programmes

Programme funding

under the MoEST
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IDA, OPEC, and WFP … considerable
support for specific education
programmes
Texbooks is mainly (where) we have a lot ofWorld Bank and DFID (,,.) UNICEF is
supporting the construction of low costclassrooms in North Eastern Kenya andother places, as well as of course providing
materials and supporting the girl childeducation very strongly. The World Bank is
supporting programmes of ASAL; arid andsemi-arid areas (…) DFID, World Bank,
UNICEF (and) the Canadians; these areorganizations that have been very, verystrong, in supporting primary education.
(Asst Min Educ)Box 5: Mobile School Project
These (mobile) units will comprise atleast a teacher or two, learningmaterials, a mode of transport if it
is a camel, if it is a donkey; we arealso providing water, and lighting.
So each education kit, will, willamount to 300,000 shillings, which
we have already factored into thebudget. We have also done somepiloting. In Wajir already we haveseven mobile schools. I havealready visited two of them myself
personally. I have been with thechildren, I have been with theparents and it's a very exiting
program. Director Basic
Education

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PROGRAMME FUNDING MODALITIES Government capitation … MoEST
 Internal fund-raising (subscriptions, membership)… CSOs..Self-reliance Grants for particular programme activities activity proposals … MoEST,

CSOs
 Bilateral funding… MoEST, UNICEF (UNGEI), UNHCR
 Multi sourcing activity/ progrmme… e.g. FPE, girls’ ed, school feeding-MoEST, UNHCR (‘host’ of CSOs, FBOs, UN Agencies- UNICEF, UNDP,
Box 7: We fundraise for our projects
WFP, WB…)


SWAp… MoEST, UNICEF
(23 investment programmes in MoEST … KESSP).

The donors are not having a field like they used to have; I think
we have coordinated them in a better way so that we also avoid
duplication, so that we avoid doing programmes that have been
done before (Director, Basic Education).

Last year, we as a regional officethrough the regional director, started
these schools for Africa. The money has
been raised by the regional office and
the Germans; but also the Swiss have
now joined, the Italians are joining.
(UNICEF ESARO )Funding modalities influencing institutional
operations
 Choice of funded activities through SWAP
 Accounting systems simplified
 Capacity building for SWAp
We have all agreed that weare going to have one
financing modality and one
procurement
modality(Director Basic Education)

we need a little bit more preparation, we
need a little bit more training, but more
importantly, we need much more capacityand goodwill from donors that are not used
to working together under one umbrella interms of the way they support a country.

Our idea is that thatmoney is going tofocus on the UNGEI(UN Girls’ Education
Initiative) activities. We
thought that if we put ourmoney there; that themoney is not just DFID
money, World Bank
money, it would give us
a place at the table
upstream (UNICEF).

(Asst Minister Educ)

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EMERGENT ISSUES & IMPLICATIONS FOR EFA
 Linking EFA with MDGs… Critical for some e.g. MoEST & UNICEF
 Education for refugees in camps (Multi-cultural challenges)
 Parental Education on EFA & EFA goals
 Strengthening guidance and counselling in schools & refugee campsOut of school (living on street) children shall feel out of place in regular school
Available schools not meant for them not used to regulated life

 Address poverty reduction
 children will not walk to school naked. Need decent uniform; need to have theirtummies full otherwise And they would rather go to streets and beg, or go to theplantations and work (Snr Dep Director NFE)

Lack of planning & tending to talk a lot on what we want to achieve –not much on
resources

Where are the schools? Do we have the classrooms? Do we have the teachers? Where are thespecial needs children? (Asst Min. Educ)In brief…
brief…
 EFA goals are generally a revision of what had

been agreed upon at the Jomtien Conference of1990 with the aim of making them a little muchsharper; (…) more relevant, (…) more timely, inthe context in which we find ourselves
 (Capacity Building Coordinator, ANCEFA).

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E N D
Arigato Gozaimasu
Asante Sana

Merci14