The national learning assessment conducted to raise awareness on the levels of literacy and numeracy among schoolchildren is set to begin in Githunguri.
Speaking on Friday in her office, the Githunguri Sub-County Uwezo Kenya National Learning Assessment Coordinator Ruth Kimani said that said the survey expected to unveil the literacy and numeracy levels in the area, will begin in a week's time and will run for slightly over a month until October 19.
Kimani said that the assessment will be conducted in 157 Sub-Counties in the country and will include a random selection of 30 villages in each sub-county and across 20 households in every village.
"The survey intends to assess over 150,000 children aged between 6 and 16 years. Researchers will also visit primary schools in these villages as there is a much larger pool of respondents in learning institutions," she said.
She said the survey conducted by Uwezo Kenya, a local non-governmental organisation for the last decade, seeks to create awareness on the literacy and numeracy levels in the country, statistics which have proven to be shockingly low in past assessments.
"The findings which will be authorised by the National Council for Science and Technology will be used to come up with relevant recommendations on how to improve learning in Kenyan schools in order to increase literacy and numeracy levels," she added.
Kimani said that the research would be coordinated by partner organisations working together with Uwezo Kenya.
"In Githunguri, the study will be carried out by Rays of Hope Initiative," she said.
She said that they expected to have about 9000 volunteers conducting the survey across the 157 sub-counties adding that at the moment, they were focusing on recruiting the volunteers who will be assigned the role of researchers.
“From each village, we shall be recruiting Kenyans who can speak both English and Kiswahili and have access to a mobile phone and had excelled in their national exams,” she explained.
Findings released in June 2014 by Uwezo from the fourth national learning assessment conducted in 2013 show that fewer than four out of 10 Class three children can read a Class two Kiswahili story while in the same class, two out of 10 cannot read a Kiswahili word. In Class eight, four out of 100 children cannot read a Class two Kiswahili story.
Just three out of 10 Class three children can read a Class two level English story while two out of 10 children in the same class cannot read an English word, according to the 2013 report. In Class eight, four out of 100 children cannot read a Class 2 English story.
On numeracy, the study found that, just three out of 10 children in Class three can solve a Class two division problem. In the same class one in 10 children cannot recognise numbers between 11 and 99. By the time children reach Class eight, one in 10 still cannot solve Class two division.
Uwezo partners tested over 135,000 children, aged six to 16, from all 47 counties in the country.