Education is the antidote to poverty. It is with this knowledge that Uwezo, an initiative of Twaweza East Africa operating in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania that began in 2009, inspired by the Annual status of Education Report (ASER) in India, conducts citizen-led assessments of children learning to gather and share children’s competences in literacy and numeracy.
Over the years, Uwezo reports have indicated that children are attending school but not learning.
According to findings by Uwezo 2014 report, 16% of children aged 7 and under in standard 1 in the North Eastern region were unable to read letters compared with less than 2% of their peers in Nairobi. This leads to huge disparities in results of different regions in the KCPE examinations.
Also, the report pointed that nationally, children from less privileged households are less likely to attend school and to progress in school compared with children from well-to-do households. This is because the former lack some basic human needs; resulting to absenteeism and low concentration in class, causing ill-preparedness for the KCPE examination; hence poor results in the same.
The Uwezo report also shows in 2011, 40% of children aged between 7 and 13 could read a class 2 story and solve class 2 division. In 2014, the figure is 39%. This vividly indicates the declining literacy and numeracy competencies of the children over the years, hence deteriorating KCPE results.
Pupils must be prepared very well if they are to pass in their KCPE examination.
By Paul Mwendwa