A large number of pupils aged between seven and 13 years cannot read a Class Two story or solve Class Two maths problem despite the government spending billions of shillings to improve the quality of education in primary schools, a report has revealed.
According to the findings of the latest report by an educational NGO, Uwezo/Twaweza, the learning outcomes are low and have been static for the last five years since it started assessing the learning outcomes of learners in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Even more disturbing, despite the equal allocation of resources to pupils across the country, the study finds out that there are huge disparities in learning outcomes between different regions and homes depending on family social status.
In urban areas, like Nairobi, children are more than five times likely to be able to identify letters and numbers than children in rural areas like Western Kenya region. It even gets more stark in places such as North Eastern region where the performance is much lower.
The findings, which are contained in a report entitled Are our children learning? The state of education in Kenya in 2015 and beyond, learning outcomes have not changed significantly over the years.
In 2011, 40 per cent of children aged between seven and 13 could read a Class Two story and solve Class Two division. In 2014, the figure is 39 per cent. The same is true for each individual subject.
The survey focussed on children learning readiness, access and progression, adult literacy and lifelong learning, inequalities including gender and learning outcomes.
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