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To compete internationally, adapt to new technologies, and attain higher levels of efficiency and productivity, a country needs a highly literate populace. However, in Kenya, literacy stands at less than 65% of the population. With such a low rate of literacy, most development is hampered. In order for Kenya to make progress in political, social, and economic development, the level of literacy has to be raised. This paper makes an important contribution in the promotion of adult literacy in...

Worldwide, women representation in management and leadership positions is marginal. Despite immense academic advancement by women, few of them do advance to management positions. In Kenya, women make up a critical portion of human resource base. However, they are grossly underrepresented at leadership positions. This situation is reflected in school leadership positions as well, including headship of schools. Unless the gender gaps in management and leadership positions are addressed, the...

This document contains a collection of literacy program evaluation instruments from developing countries, as well as several papers describing how to use evaluation instruments to assess various types of systems. The following titles (with author or country of origin) are contained in this collection: "Designing a System of Evaluation and Monitoring for Literacy and Post-Literacy Programmes" (by R. H. Dave); "Problem Study Questionnaire: Work-Oriented Adult Literacy Project" (Iran); "Initial...

This research is one of the few attempts to employ the conceptual framework of "technology transfer" to analyze the extent that participation in cross-national learning assessments has had on capacity development, particularly in the development of official public structures, by equipping educationists and influencing teachers’ competency in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants drawn from the Ministries of Basic Education,...

This research is one of the few attempts to employ the conceptual framework of "technology transfer" to analyze the extent that participation in cross-national learning assessments has had on capacity development, particularly in the development of official public structures, by equipping educationists and influencing teachers’ competency in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants drawn from the Ministries of Basic Education,...

This study sought to review literature pertinent to difficulties encountered by students in the learning and usage of mathematical terminology. The need to carry out this study arose from the concern by the Kenya National Examinations Council, and the general public, over the poor annual results in mathematics. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which the meanings of some mathematical terms are understood and/or confused by students for whom English is a...

Since 1948, various UN conventions have recognised basic education as a human right. Yet this right continues to be denied to many child labourers across the world. This articles draws on the results of a study examining how children in domestic labour in Kenya access and participate in education. Three issues were explored: (1) the correlates of child domestic labourers; (2) their working conditions and contexts; and (3) the right to education. Interviews and group discussions held in one...

Recent developments have led to a lot of emphasis being placed on early childhood education. Massive growth has also occurred in this segment of the education sector. Emphasis continues to be placed not just on growth but also on quality of the educational experiences that children are exposed to. In Kenya reports continue to emerge of pupils in primary school who lack numeracy and literacy competencies expected at their level. This inevitably shines the spotlight on the quality of...

Recent developments have led to a lot of emphasis being placed on early childhood education. Massive growth has also occurred in this segment of the education sector. Emphasis continues to be placed not just on growth but also on quality of the educational experiences that children are exposed to. In Kenya reports continue to emerge of pupils in primary school who lack numeracy and literacy competencies expected at their level. This inevitably shines the spotlight on the quality of...

The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of embossed picture technique when used in teaching reading to the pupils with hearing impairment. The study was guided by Piaget's theory of human mental development. The study adopted an experimental design. The study was carried out at Kambui School for the hearing impaired located on Githunguri-Ruiru road in Kiambu District, Githunguri Division, Ngewa zone, 3 kilometers off Kwa-Maiko centre. The school was chosen since it caters for...

Teacher classroom practices have been identified as the key contributing factor to the low learning outcomes of primary school grades in Kenya. Teacher mentoring has the potential to improve classroom practices and this study sought to determine its effects on the classroom practices of primary school teachers in Kwale County, Kenya. Using One Group Repeated Measures Quasi-Experimental Design, one cohort of 40 teachers in 22 public primary schools was mentored for 20 months, from May 2016 to...

Coming from Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Kenya, the papers in this Special Issue on Music Education in Africa cannot portray a definitive story of music education in all 54 sovereign states in the Continent, but as a first step towards understanding what matters in this region of the world, the range of topics in this issue provides us with a focal point for dialogue.

The paper examines the linguistic situation in Kenya and the teaching of Kiswahili in its schools. While there is widespread support for the school programme, the paper concludes that there are major problems to be overcome, particularly in the areas of attitudes, teacher training and course materials. General expressions of support for Kiswahili are of little value without effective interventions in these areas.

The article offers information on the Reading Club of the Kilimo Primary School in Kenya, which visited the Haven of Hope children's home on the Orphans Day on June 1, 2012. It states that the Reading Club has helped the children to improve their academic performance and reading skills. It mentions that the teachers of the school focus on stimulating the ordinary people to unusual effort towards reading.

The paper reports the results of a survey of parents (n = 12), teachers (n = 8) and pupils (n = 20) in primary schools in rural Kenya. The sample was divided equally between multilingual and monolingual schools, the former using English or Kiswahili only, right through primary school, the latter using the mother tongue (in this case, Kalenjin) Kalenjin in primary classes 1-3, and English or Kiswahili from primary class 4 on, where the children are on average 9 years old. Virtually all the...

This study was carried out with 276 standard eight pupils in eleven primary schools in the rural town of Narok in Kenya's Rift Valley. It evaluated their awareness of key environmental issues in their local area and their knowledge about the causes, effects and solutions pertaining to these environmental issues. A descriptive research design was used and data was collected using the Pupils' Environmental Education Questionnaire (PEEQ). The study found that most pupils were aware of the key...

This study was carried out with 86 primary school teachers in Kenya's Narok County and explored factors affecting integration of ICT in teaching and learning. Multiple regression was used for data analysis. The results revealed that 32.5% of the variance was explained by the independent and extraneous variables (R[superscript 2] = 0.325, P = 0.001) and was statistically significant. Attitude was found to be a significant predictor of teachers' behavioural intention to use ICT in teaching and...

Kenya must invest more in education to realize her vision 2030. The government commitment to Education for All's goal has been expressed through provision of basic education in pre-primary, primary and secondary school levels. To this end, the government introduced two kitties; Free Primary Education in 2003 and Subsidized Secondary Education in 2008 (where the government paid tuition fees for the students in secondary schools), but left parents to finance Early Childhood Development and...

Mother tongue education (MTE) has been a subject of rigorous debate for more than half a century, in both industrialised and developing societies. Despite disparate views on MTE, there is an uneasy consensus on its importance in educational systems, especially in the foundational years. Using the Language Management Framework, the article provides a critical appraisal of MTE discourses in relation to primary teacher education and the quota system of student teacher selection and teacher...

In recent times, the Kenyan education sector has experienced increased cases of students' indiscipline in schools. However, the potential of homeschooling as a possible solution to such indiscipline has not been explored. Whereas critics of homeschooling posit that homeschooled children are inferior academically, proponents of this form of learning don't think so. Therefore, this research compared the academic learning outcomes of homeschooled children and children in conventional school...