Access to Education Conundrum in Kenya and the Role of Government, Non-profits, and

For-Profit Organizations

Shivani Sopra

Northeastern University

ENTR 2206

Professor Nikki James

Fall 2022
 Access to Education Conundrum in Kenya and the Role of Government, Non-profits, and

For-Profit Organizations

Access to education remains a challenge in most developing economies. With education

costs rising, most parents in developing economies find it challenging to finance their children’s

education as wages remains relatively low and job security is relatively challenged. Kenya faces

these challenges as one of the low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Consistent to the

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, about 74% of Kenyans working in the formal sector earned

less than $500 that year and the wages have become even lower following wage cuts during the

covid-19 lockdown (Business Daily, 2018). Surprisingly, of the 74%, 36% earned less than $300

a month, which can barely run a two-child household owing to the global inflation crisis. The

study covered 2.6 million workers in formal employment (Business Daily, 2018). With a labor

force of over 21 million people, almost 20 million Kenyans work in the informal sector where

wages are even lower. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KEBS) estimates the median wage

in Kenya at below $200 a month (Business Daily, 2018). To this end, most parents can barely

sponsor multiple children in secondary education where fees are as high as $450 with the

average family having more than three children in school (Cite). While primary education

adoption has increased owing to free primary education, access to secondary and tertiary

education remains relatively limited due to high costs. Therefore, this paper seeks to understand

in a more meaningful way the complexity of education access in Kenya and the role that

organizations are playing in trying to solve the problem.

Context

Kenya has made significant strides in improving education access. Jean and Jade (2018)

state that the country’s success with achieving over 90% enrollment rate in primary schools
began with a free primary education program in 2002. The program removed all cost barriers to

primary and secondary adoption by covering all expenses for parents. To this end, primary

education enrollments have increased to more than 90% with equally high completion rates by

2015 (Olenja et al. 2020). However, transitioning to secondary schools has remained a challenge

for most students as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Secondary School Enrollment in Kenya

Source: World Bank, 2021

The figure shows the children in a secondary school as a percentage of teenagers eligible

to go to school. While enrollment in secondary school increased from 35% in 2002 to 49% in

2008, it began to taper off back to 47% as of 2009. While the data available from World Bank is

updated up to 2009, Olenja et al. (2020) observe that enrollment rates increased marginally to

55% in 2015 through primary school enrollment programs that subsidized secondary education

to a moderate degree. Olenja et al. (2020) attribute the increase in enrollment rate to a new

government program that subsidizes high school education. However, other unsubsidized

components of secondary education remain high, which most parents cannot afford to foot due to

their relatively low incomes. Besides the high cost of secondary education, Ohba (2011) attribute

the low transition rate to other education and non-education-related factors. Ohba (2011)
articulates the challenge posed by the quality of education. While free primary education has

increased access to basic education, the reliance on funding from the government is estimated to

complicate the management of schools. On the one hand, Abuya et al. (2016) observe that

funding to schools is always late, which hampers investment in education aspects such as

materials. Schools are devoid of development to improve facilities such as libraries and

education materials. Mbalaka (2022) observe that shortage of textbooks plague schools, which

hinder the quality of education, low quality of education means that most primary school-going

children attain grades that are relatively low grades that in some cases has been observed to

discourage teenagers from proceeding with secondary education. In other cases, the teacher-

student ratio remains relatively low as the government struggles with meeting the funding

needed to increase the teacher population needed to guarantee higher education standards

(Mbalaka, 2022). To this, going to school is not viewed as transformative as it does not confer

usable skills or knowledge to the student that can be attributed to better life outcomes. Lastly,

limited funding to build more secondary schools to accommodate a high number of students

coming from high school remains a challenge. As noted by Mwangi et al. (2018), Kenya

embraces a boarding type of school, which increases the capitalization needed to build new

secondary schools. To this end, competition for decent secondary school slots is very high.

Where community-based secondary school with day schooling exists, the standard of facilities is

too low, which reduces the quality of education. To this end, few students choose to attend a

community secondary school while for those who choose, the completion rate is relatively low.

While some fail to go to secondary schools by choice, Mwangi et al. (2018) observe that most

teenagers failing to transition to secondary schools are talented and bright students whose parents
cannot afford to pay for secondary schools. Therefore, access to secondary and post-secondary

education by children from low-income families remains an unsolved problem in Kenya.

Government Policies to Address the Problem

In response to the low transition rate to secondary school, the Kenya government

introduced subsidized secondary education in 2008 that would effectively reduce the fees parents

paid in public secondary schools in both day schools and boarding schools (Bulowa & Likoko,

2022). As of the 2022/2023 fiscal year, Kenya’s ministry of education has expanded the program

to include setting the maximum fees that secondary school principals can charge and the portion

of the fees the government subsidizes (Bulowa & Likoko, 2022). Fees depend on whether the

boarding secondary school is Category A or B. Category A covers secondary schools located in

major metropolitan areas and national schools. Category B includes boarding schools located in

low-cost regions. In all cases, the government subsidizes tuition, teaching, and learning

materials, as part of the maintenance and improvement of schools, media insurance, and activity

fees, among others. Therefore, a student in Category A school could end up paying fees as high

as $450 annually and $3500 for category B school. Bulowa and Likoko (2022) note that while

the fees appear relatively low relative to international standards, extremely low salaries lock out

most of the students from their secondary school of choice. To this end, most talented and

educated students end up attending day secondary schools where standards of education are quite

low, and a shortage of teachers is prevalent (Bulowa & Likoko, 2022). Secondly, the government

of Kenya categorizes education services as one of the other essential services that are exempt

from taxation. Therefore, both private and public schools are not required to pay any form of

taxes.
 The Kenyan government also zero-rates value-added tax on books and other educational

materials, which favors parents in both private and public schools. Such an approach is intended

to lower the cost of learning materials, which will also lower the fees charged to parents. Apart

from offering bursaries and building schools is one of the areas of funding that members of

parliament and county governments are allowed to use their development funding allocations

(Zakayo, 2018). More specifically, Kenya has a decentralized governance system where a

portion of the tax revenue is passed to country governments to help achieve balanced

development. Besides that, members of parliament also receive a consolidated fund to use for

development activities for their respective fields. The type of activities the funds could be used

are limited and stipulated in the law. Among the development activities, country governments

and members of parliament are allowed to include extending bursary support to children from

low-income families so they can undertake secondary schooling. Zakayo (2018) observe that

such funding has been instrumental in increasing the transition of children from poor families

into secondary education as leaders are better placed to understand student backgrounds and

hence allocate government funds more efficiently. National government programs, on the other

hand, extend subsidy benefits to all students irrespective of the parent’s ability to foot education

bills. Therefore, the money is not allocated efficiently as it is spread too thin to too many

students who might not be needy rather than focusing on subsidizing education for children from

worse-off families. Besides offering bursaries, the government allows counties and governors in

county governments to finance development projects in schools including building new

classrooms, purchase of equipment such as learning desks and learning materials, and other

improvements such as improvement of the overall learning environment (Zakayo, 2018). Such
approaches reduce the funding needs and pressure facing principals, which enables them to focus

much of the available funding on improving the quality of learning.

For-Profit Sector Impact on the Problem

The for-profit sector has taken an active role in improving secondary school access to

secondary and post-secondary education in Kenya. First, Waiti (2018) observes that the wings to

fly program is one of the most successful and influential in Kenya offering full scholarships to

students from poor families based on their performance. However, bright students from poor

families have challenges transitioning to secondary schools due to costly fees and poverty at

home. Therefore, for-profit organizations have launched multiple programs to enable best

performers in primary schools’ transition to secondary school. Equity Bank, one of Kenya’s most

successful banks, is one such profit-seeking company that launched a “Wings to Fly” program as

a corporate social responsibility program (Waiti, 2018). The program identifies students from

poor families but with excellent performance in KCPE education. Such students are educated

throughout secondary school education and later to university education based on their

performance in KCSE. Waiti (2018) note that the success and popularity of the Wings to Fly

program have inspired similar programs by competing banks including Co-operative Bank,

Kenya Commercial Bank, and Family Bank. Waiti (2018) observes that the scope of these

programs extends beyond paying for school fees. In their study surveying students under the

Wings to Fly program, the study found that the bank does not only pay for fees but also offers

additional financial support so that students from poor families can have a smooth life experience

in boarding schools and campuses. Students are offered a small stipend, which provides them

with cash to cater for other things such as personal supplies and other contingent financial needs

that emerge in the process of learning. Waiti (2018) add that the students also get a chance to
obtain work-related skills by taking in some roles in the banking hall during school holidays.

Such arrangements are intended to accord the students the exposure and experience they can

leverage in the job market after schooling.

Apart from banks, other for-profit companies such as Safaricom offer student

scholarships to up to 100 students from needy backgrounds. The $400,000 program would see

students from needy backgrounds benefit from paid secondary education, uniforms, and tuition

fees among other opportunities (Meru & Kinoti, 2022). The company launched the program as a

form of Corporate Social Responsibility intended to impart Safaricom values to students and

accord them a strong foundation for success in the highly competitive Kenyan market. Besides

sponsoring students in secondary schools, Safaricom launched the M-Pesa foundation, which is

named after its successful mobile payment system, intended to make the secondary school

sponsorship program permanent (Meru & Kinoti, 2022). Through the foundation, the company

opened the M-Pesa Foundation Academy where students receive instruction using Kenyan

Curriculum that is fully paid for by the company. As of 2021, the academy had over 940 students

enrolled in different forms and more than 600 had graduated from the academy. All of the

students are high performers from different parts of the country, but their backgrounds so

challenged to make it possible for them to attend high-performance schools of their choice. Such

continuing programs by Safaricom and other for-profit organizations underscore the challenge of

secondary school education in Kenya to the point it becomes the backbone of most companies’

social corporate responsibility (Meru & Kinoti, 2022). By providing opportunities to needy

students across the country, the companies embed themselves in the daily struggles of a Kenyan

family seeking to use education as the pathway out of poverty. However, challenging economic

times continue to entrench generation poverty in the country as talented students lack the
financial support needed to undertake the four years of schooling and four additional years of

tertiary education schooling. However, the combined effort of for-profit organizations to extend

scholarships to students from needy families provides a ray of hope for talented students while

helping to bridge the access gap to secondary and post-secondary education.

Role of non-Profits

Non-profit sector firms have also taken an active role to address the education gap in

Kenya. Some of the NGOs such as the Kenya Education Endowment Fund provide an avenue for

well-off Kenyans and other well-wishers globally to donate to their kitty that is used to sponsor

students throughout secondary schooling (Kenya Education Endowment Fund, 2022). Registered

both in Kenya and in the US, the foundation taps into US and Kenya donor pools while

registration in Kenya allows the NGO to access and finance students from needy families. Jewitt

and Ryley (2014) observe that challenge in accessing secondary education goes beyond access to

fees. In more impoverished regions of the country, access to food and sanitary products for

children is also an issues affecting enrollment in secondary and primary education. To this end,

some NGOs such as food4educatoin.org collect donations from well-wishers and use the money

to run school feeding programs in arid and semi-arid areas. Given the prevalence of drought, the

availability of food in school is sufficient to make some children consider going to school, which

has helped improved enrollment and retention in arid areas as noted by Jewitt and Ryley (2014).

In other areas, customs such as female genital mutilation and forced early marriages continue to

hamper progression to secondary school as Jewitt and Ryley (2014) suggest. NGOs have taken

an active role to provide affected girls find a safe home where they can advance their education.

While such approaches do not affect a significant portion of the student population, they present

opportunities to change the culture in pastoralist communities where both boys and girls are
encouraged to pursue early marriages as opposed to seeking further education. With parents

experiencing the change that could come with educating children, NGOs intend to break the

cultural barriers hindering transitioning of children to secondary education.

Summary

Overall, the research uncovers several findings about the role of the government, NGOs,

and for-profit organizations in the attempt to improve access to secondary education in Kenya.

First, the different organizations are working collaboratively to address the problem. On the one

hand, the government is using resources to subsidize secondary education. However, the

government cannot manage to offer free education to all the students. To this end, for-profit

organizations chip in with different programs that allow performers from challenged

backgrounds to access secondary education free. Non-profits have also chipped in with a similar

program that seeks to extend financial help to even more students from challenged backgrounds

to go through high school. Such collaborative efforts are going a long way to reducing the

secondary school education gap among high-performing students. However, students who do not

attain high markets are still locked out of further learning opportunities if their families cannot

afford to pay for secondary education.

Overall, government programs have the most salient impact on addressing the problem.

The decision to subsidize high school education reduces the fees payable by day scholars.

Primary school leavers who do not attain high marks to attract scholarships from for-profit and

non-profit organizations can attend the local community school, which presents equally

compelling opportunities for better grades and a chance at further education. Overall, the

government program creates the most salient impact, as it does not discriminate against students

based on their performance or learning capabilities in primary school. Rather, universal access to
government subsidies allows the program to touch all families that are out of reach of for-profit

or non-profit organizations.

For-profit organization approaches are having the most positive impact on the system. By

focusing on a family that is in the most need and demonstrating a desire for academic excellence,

the resources allocated can be used to finance the entire school fees and upkeep needed in

boarding schools. Such targeted approaches maximize the positive externality to society.

Students under these programs have a chance to not only acquire learning skills but also earn a

mentor who helps them navigate the challenging world of higher education and entrance into the

job market.
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