AN EVALUATION OF DYNAMICS OF QUALITY OF EDUCATION PROVIDED BY NON-FORMAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NAIROBI, KENYA KAUGI, EPHANTUS MICHENI E83/10929/06

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION KENYATTA UNIVERSITY SUPERVISORS PROF. GRACE BUNYI DR. S. N. WAWERU

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY The importance of provision of quality basic education to all children has been underscored by various international conventions. Notably we have the World declaration for Education for All (EFA), Jomtien Thailand, 1990, the Dakar Framework for action in 2000 and Millennium development Goals (MDGs) (UNESCO, 2005). The Dakar framework for action (2000) committed nations to provide quality education and improve all aspects of education quality (UNESCO, 2004)

BACKGROUND CONT…. What constitutes quality education? The definition of quality education tends to be contextual and therefore to possible get an universally accepted definition due to national, regional and local expectations (Adams, 1993) Both UNESCO and UNICEF take a broad approach to understanding quality. UNESCO focuses on four quality elements (learner characteristics, context, inputs and outcomes) and UNICEF identifies five ingredients of quality education(learner, content, processes, environments and outcomes). This study employed the UNICEF framework of education quality to find out the quality of education provided by the non-formal schools in Nairobi, Kenya.

Background cont….. In Kenya basic Education is provided through formal and non-formal means. Non-formal mode of delivery targets children and out-out-school youth who are unable to access education through the formal school system. The non-formal mode of delivery gives learners opportunity to access the formal school curriculum through non-formal schools (NFS)and to access non-formal curriculum through the Non-formal Education centres (NFECs) (Republic of Kenya, 2009).

BACKGROUND CONT….. Following the implementation of FPE policy 2003 there was an increase of 1.1 million children and 300,000 children were enrolled in Non-Formal Schools (Republic of Kenya, 2005c). Despite this increase in enrollments over 1.5million children could not gain access to any form of schooling (Republic of Kenya, 2009b) and (Republic of Kenya, 2003). A taskforce appointed by the Minister for Education in 2003 recommended the use of non-formal education as an alternative channel to provision of basic education to meet the educational needs of out-of- schoolchildren (Republic of Kenya, 2009b).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The recognition of the Non-Formal Schools as an alternative channel to the provision of formal basic education in 2004 saw great proliferation of Non-Formal Schools particularly in the informal settlements in Nairobi. However not much was had been documented on the quality of education that was being offered in these non-formal schools

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study was to find out the quality of education provided in Non-Formal Schools in Nairobi, Kenya.

Objectives To establish the quality of learners who attend Non- Formal Schools (NFS). To investigate the quality of the learning environments provided in the Non-Formal Schools. To evaluate the quality of the curriculum used in the Non-Formal Schools. To investigate the quality of the educational processes employed in the Non-Formal Schools. To examine the quality of educational outcomes obtained from education provided by the Non-Formal Schools.

Research questions What is the quality of learners who attend Non- Formal Schools (NFSs)? What is the quality of the learning environment in the Non-Formal Schools? What is the quality of the curriculum used by the Non-Formal Schools? What is the quality of the educational processes employed in the Non-Formal Schools? What is the quality of educational outcomes from the Non-Formal Schools?

Significance of the study Research findings may be used: i.make informed recommendations and policy options with regard to the provision of quality education through NFS. ii.To come up with appropriate intervention measures for improving and enhancing the quality of education provided by NFS.

Limitations of the study The office of the Director of City Education did not have up-to-date records of registered Non- Formal Schools Some Non-Formal Schools did not operate on permanent physical locations, which made it difficult to locate such schools. The research findings from this study are limited to Non-Formal Schools in Nairobi and may not be generalized elsewhere unless to Non-Formal Schools operating under similar conditions.

Assumptions of the Study It was further assumed that the data collection instruments would provide data that would enable the researcher to answer the research questions. Pilot study was conducted to help improve internal validity of the research instruments and so make them reliable.

Theoretical Framework The present study was guided by the General Systems Theory (GST) advanced by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy (Bertalanffy, 1956) who defined a system as “elements standing in a relationship”. According to (Ackoff, 1981) a system is a set of two or more interrelated elements with three properties, first, each element has an effect on the functioning of the whole, second, each element is affected by at least one other element in the system and finally all possible subgroups of elements also have the first two properties.

Theoretical Framework continued…… Quality education was thus conceptualized as a system that has several components. Consequently, the present study adopted the UNICEF framework of education quality that defines quality education as consisting of five dimensions, namely quality learners, environments, curriculum content, processes and outcomes.

Conceptual framework Quality Learners Quality Environments Quality Curriculum Quality Processes Private tuition (for syllabus coverage and preparation for KCPE) Quality Outcomes (Performance in KCPE)

LITERATURE REVIEW Quality Learners (learners’ health status and nutrition) Quality Learning Environments Quality curriculum Quality processes Quality outcomes

Research gaps Findings from previous research indicate that children in urban informal settlements were underserved with vaccination. However, these studies did not target NFS and covered only certain parts of Nairobi. There is limited documented information on the provision of hot lunch programme by the NFS as a way of enhancing the nutritional status of the children. There is little documented information on provision of safe water for drinking to the pupils of NFS as a way of keeping them away from contracting waterborne diseases and thus boost their education participation. Though documents literature shows that parental participation in the learning of their children has had direct consequences for their children’s educational achievement little information existed on the participation of parents of children in the NFS in the learning of their children. Although insecurity is a common problem in the urban informal settlements, there exists little documented literature as to whether it affects pupils school attendance in Nairobi.

Research gaps continued…… Although documented literature exists on the importance of sufficient schools facilities to academic achievement little literature exists on the availability and suitability of physical facilities and instructional materials in the NFS in Nairobi. The suitability of teachers who teach in the NFS is not well documented.

Research gaps continued…… There is limited documented information on the virtues promoted amongst the learners in the NFS. There was paucity of documented literature on the most commonly used methods of instruction used in the NFS. Not much is documented on the strategies used by the management of NFs to attract and retain pupils in school. There exists limited literature on how the performance of NFS in KCPE compares to that of formal schools in Nairobi.

Research design This study is descriptive in nature and the design employed is the survey design.

Location of the study The study covered eight districts in Nairobi: Kasarani Makadara Kamukunji Starehe Westlands Dagoreti Langata Embakasi

Target population Target population comprised the head teachers, teachers and pupils in the 411 non-formal schools that had presented candidates for KCPE. Non-formal schools-411 Headteachers-411 Teachers (class seven) Pupils (class seven) DCE

Sample size

Sampling Technique Stratified random sampling was used. The districts were used as a strata and the number of schools for each district were selected proportionately All headteachers for sampled schools were included in the study Teachers teaching class seven maths, languages, science and social studies were randomly selected for inclusion in the study Ten pupils from class seven were randomly selected with proportional numbers for each gender

Research instruments NFS headteachers’ questionnaires NFS teachers’ questionnaire NFS pupils’ questionnaire Interview schedule for DCE

Validity and reliability Validity was established through expert judgment and piloting Split-half reliability was used to test internal reliability of each data collection instrument The correlation coefficient for the instruments were as follows: Headteachers 0.84, teachers 0.85 and pupils 0.82

Data analysis For quantitative data questionnaires were first cleaned for errors, data coded on the SPSS software and then analysed using desciptive statistics, mainly mean and percentages. The analysed data was presented in frequency distributions and bar graphs, Qualitative data were analysed first by establishing themes, patterns, trends and relationships from the information gathered which were used to draw conclusions.

Ethical considerations Permit from the National Council for science and technology Permission from DCE Consent from the respondents

Findings Learners Learning environments Curriculum Processes outcomes

Learners Nearly all the pupils who attend non-formal schools have access to fairly good health services (1005 out of 1093 or 92%) Majority of the pupils who attend non-formal schools (989 out of 1082 or 91.4%) have access to three meals a day Although majority of the pupils (551 out of 1038 or 53.1%) reported having adequate family assistance in doing their homework, a good proportion (487 out of 1038 or 46.9%) received poor assistance

environments Non-formal schools have big shortage of classrooms with some 35 out of 71 schools or 49%) had shortage of at least 5 classrooms. This results to serious congestion in the available rooms. A large proportion of pupils (768 out of 1024 or 75%) did not have sufficient textbooks and 663 out of 1028 or 64.5%) did not have enough writing materials which affects learning achievement Use of corporal punishment, though outlawed, was found to be quite prevalent with 530 out of 868 or 61 5 of the pupils indicating to have been subjected to it.

curriculum The study also found in addition to providing the academic knowledge gained/inculcated through the teaching of formal subjects the NFS also emphasized the informal aspects of the school curriculum by promoting various positive values and virtues that lead to assimilation of good habits by the pupils The non-formal schools do not provide adequate opportunities for the learners to participate in co- curricular activities and therefore, some learners may not be able to identify and develop talents in non- academic areas.

Processes Most teachers in the NFS are untrained and professional development of the teachers was poor, as majority had not attended any inservice course On teaching methods most teachers in the NFS used learner-centred methods of teaching with the most commonly used methods being question and answer, responsive lecture and discussion It was further found that majority of the headteachers do not have adequate time for monitoring curriculum coverage

Outcomes The quality of outcomes in the NFS as indicated by performance in KCPE is above average and has been improving over the years The above data show that the academic performance of the non- formal schools is comparatively better than that of public formal schools in Nairobi. Year MSS TOTAL The academic performance of the non-formal schools is comparatively better than that of public formal schools as showed on table 4.26.

Outcomes

Conclusion This study resulted in five conclusions. First the obtained data suggests that majority of children who attend NFS have good health and nutrition but a good proportion require support particularly in provision of good health care, nutrition, protection and care. Secondly, the physical facilities were not conducive for learning and learning environment are friendly to the pupils for quality education. Thirdly formal curriculum gives the learners a chance to acquire formal education and so to access the benefits associated with formal schooling.

Conclusion cont…… Fourthly, since majority of the teachers were untrained and headteachers had limited knowledge on school management, this suggests that the quality of processes is poor. Finally, fairly good performance of NFSs in the KCPE confirms that NFSs provide a suitable alternative mode for delivery of quality basic education. The quality of education provided by the non-formaI schools is poor in two of the dimensions of quality (environments and processes) but comparable to what is provided in formal schools in three dimension(learners, curriculum and outcomes).

Policy Recommendations MOE consider provision of SFP to the deserving learners, improve health care services, improve security within the informal settlements and improve school discipline The Nairobi County government to expand the existing primary schools and construct new schools within the informal settlements to increase access, instead of leaving the responsibility to the faith based organizations, NGOs, and individuals. The MOE and county government should enhance teachers’ professional development that targets NFS where majority of teachers are untrained

Recommendations for further research This study evaluated education quality using UNICEF (2000) framework. A similar study could be conducted using a different framework or research design. A similar study could be replicated focusing on the formal primary schools in Nairobi county. The study recommends for a comparative study on KCPE performance between NFS and public primary schools in Nairobi County

THE END THANKYOU GOD BLESS