ケニアにおける初等教育完全普及への取り組み : 無償化政策の現状と問題点 <論文>

Efforts towards Universal Primary Education in Kenya : The Current Situation and Issues in Free Primary Education <Articles>

Sawamura Nobuhide

比較教育学研究

Achieving universal primary education (UPE) is one of international development goals. In the light of this goal, the Kenyan Government introduced a policy of free primary education (FPE) effective in 2003, when the new government came to power. Although some other countries have introduced FPE, its introduction has not been based on careful planning and preparation. It is often introduced as a political decision. This has marginalized the role of research and professionals. The article is a report on a case study of critical analysis of implementing FPE policy in Kenya, and implications for the achievement of UPE are explored.

Many sub-Saharan African countries gained independence from colonial rule in the early 1960s. School enrolment ratios have since then steadily increased. However, African economies stagnated, particularly in the late 1970s and 1980s. Enrolment ratios did not improve, and at the same time there was a decline in the quality of education. One third of out-of-school children are in sub-Saharan African countries; hence achieving UPE is always a priority in their national plans. Malawi and Uganda attempted to attain UPE by implementing an FPE policy, but this resulted in further lowering education quality. Class-sizes became larger, particularly in the lower grades. There was a shortage of classrooms and teachers to accommodate the dramatic increase in the number of pupils.

The Kenyan Government spends almost 40 per cent of its current national expenditure on education. Education indices such as primary school enrolment ratios of the country are good in comparison to those of other developing countries. However, the Kenyan education system is characterized by inefficiency in terms of the utilization of teachers and high grade repetition and dropout rates. The Kenya National Union of Teachers (NUT) has strong power in the political arena, and teachers in Kenya are relatively well paid in comparison with those in neighboring countries. However, the enrolment and completion rates in primary education have been declining in spite of an increase in educational budgets. Drastic measures need to be taken to reform the education system as a whole.

The impact of FPE in this country has been huge. The number of pupils in 2003 increased by 15-20 per cent, compared to that of 2002. The gross enrolment ratio is now 104 per cent. Kenya is therefore now categorized as one of the few well-performing countries in achieving the UPE goal. Quality, however, is still problematic. At the school level, FPE has had a negative impact, as the money received is supposed to be used for purchasing learning materials as per the government's instruction. This conditionality sometimes hampers effective school management, as needs are different from school to school. Second, the participation of parents and their contribution to schools have understandably decreased, as they do not pay any fees or levies. Third, the average academic performance of pupils is likely to become worse, as the new admissions are primarily from poor families.

FPE is highly dependent upon international donor assistance; hence its sustainability is questionable. This is counter to the current idea of self-help and recovering from aid-dependency syndrome. It is right for the government to take responsibility for primary education; however, in a situation where the education system is not functioning efficiently, limited national budgets cannot be utilized effectively. The beneficiaries should be pupils, but high quality of education in an era of rapid expansion of enrolments cannot be attained and sustained when motivation for learning is low. The provision of low quality education may only make children in primary schools victims of miseducation.

Many countries have laws which state FPE as a long-term development goal. In Kenya, various inefficiencies and problems in the education system need to be overcome before children are able to benefit from FPE. The decline of enrolment ratios in the 1980s and 1990s often resulted from introduction of cost-sharing policy in education. Also, reducing the families' monetary burden for their children's schooling is supposed to be one important factor to encourage schooling. For FPE to have an impact, many other factors, including traditional values and the curriculum content, need reviewing in order to remove obstacles to learning. Schools need to have viable learning activities. What is critical for them is to have access to quality education. Quantitative expansion alone is inadequate and qualitative improvement is a prerequisite for FPE.

Kenya may find it difficult to achieve universal quality primary education unless there is continuous involvement of and contribution from the community and from parents. Kenyan society traditionally has a spirit of 'harambee' (self-help), which forms the core of education culture there. Arguably, it is now important to find ways to strengthen such spirit and also to re-examine the role and value of schooling from the viewpoint of families, rather than that of schools and teachers. To do this, it is necessary to pay particular attention to the impact of FPE on individual pupils rather than on the nation as a whole.

Education [ 370 ]

jpn

日本比較教育学会

東信堂

[ISSN] 0916-6785

[NCID] AN10188509