With the introduction of free primary education in Kenya (2003), more students have been enrolled for the eight years of basic education. However, quality of primary level education continues to be a challenge.
The introduction of private schools has facilitated a growing disparity between children from well-up households and those from non-rich.
In North Eastern region of Kenya, only two out of ten children aged 7 years and below and who are in their first year of primary school education (Grade 1) could not read letters.
It was noted there was a wide gap upon considering same age of children but who are in Nairobi region, since less than 2% found it difficult to read letters.
This means that 8 out of 10 children (7 years and below) from Nairobi could identify and pronounce letters.
The above findings were carried out and published by Uwezo, a program of Twaweza.
According to the 2014 results from school and household data collected, it was noted that nationally, in Kenya, students from less socially advantaged households are less likely to attend and advance in school compared with children from non-poor households. This clearly indicates that wealth has a great influence on learning outcome in Kenya.
Uwezo (2011) also shows that learning outcomes has slightly reduced for three years.
Only 4 students out of 10 (40%) students aged between seven and 13 years could read a story and solve division, both class two assignments.
In the year 2014, the figure reduced to 39%, meaning about 3 in every 10 students could handle the same task.
By Agnes Kibe.