Primary school education in Kenya

Access to free primary school education for all is one of the key Millennium Development Goals. Amy Merone shares her first-hand experience of the impact of primary school education in Kenya.

A young girl at Thimbigua Primary School Aids awareness at Thimbigua Young orphans in Kenya

The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal of providing access to free primary school education to all would have a resounding effect on the world’s poorest children; many of whose families cannot afford to send them to school and cannot afford the price of a school uniform.

Africa has the highest number of girls out of education of any continent – 23 million. But in countries such as Uganda and Kenya, where free primary education has been introduced, it is having a positive impact on the lives of millions of children.

At Thimbigua Primary School in Karuri, Kenya, more than 800 children regularly pack the school grounds from 6.45 am – eager to receive the free primary education that President Kibaki’s government introduced in 2003. Across Kenya more than 1.3 million children went back to school when the government scrapped school fees in primary schools.

The children at Thimbigua Primary School are eager to learn. Many of them would otherwise be working the fields or caring for their families – too poor to afford to go to school. Instead, the children who greeted me daily for their English lessons recognised the importance and value of an education in a poor country. They tell me of their hopes and dreams to become pilots, doctors and lawyers; but they say they know that, without an education and without achieving good grades, that won’t be possible.

I taught 9 year-old children alongside 15 year-old children, desperate to take advantage of a free education that had been denied to them for so many years. In classes of up to 50 pupils, the children wanted to learn conversational and grammatical English, aware that such skills could help them to escape a life of poverty.

Education is the tool that can help millions of young people in poor countries move forward. The children I taught in Kenya were bright and enthusiastic; determined to work hard and learn new skills.

They know how hard they must work to escape poverty. Their circumstances make it difficult for them to even afford the resources they need to be in school. Many of the children write with a piece of lead that was once held between the wood of a pencil – now broken. They must work from the same exercise book all year round – being sure not to waste any paper.

Yet these are children who truly appreciate what they have. They work long hours on broken benches in stone classrooms with windows lacking glass, and floors that during the rainy season become swamped with mud. But, if you ask any of them about education and why they work so hard, they will tell you. ‘We know the value of education and the importance of going to school.’

Or as one little girl told me: ‘I want to be a doctor when I grow up. But you have to be very clever and work hard in school.’