Building Resilience in Non-formal Education: The Case of Kenya

Abstract

Building resilience in the Non-formal Educational Sector Non-formal education refers to organized educational activities (Unesco, 2022) which are experiential in nature and foster developmental skills and knowledge (dothegap, 2018), but they do not have an elaborate curriculum, syllabus, accreditation, and the certification similar to that associated with formal learning (Khasnabis et al, 2010). Educational disruption is a phenomenon that may resonate with many, but it is always eschewed from non-formal education. In Kenya, non-formal education comprises of individuals from poor street families or those living in informal settlements. These are individuals who never got a chance to undergo formal schooling. To alleviate the situation, in 2002, the Kenyan government instituted Free Education for All (FEA), but a decade later, the problem still lingers. Street families are still thriving in the slums and other informal settlements in urban centers. They become fertile grounds for those who wish to prey on the marginalized such as organized crime syndicates, drug peddlers, child prostitutes, human traffickers, and all manner of forms of human dehumanization gangs. The government of Kenya instituted TVET (technical and vocational education and training) in 2013 (Wakiaga, 2022) to equip these individuals with markatable skills. Resilience in the non-formal educational sector is far reaching. It begins with identifying populations these poor populations, and then followed by an intertwined duality of rehabilitation and counseling. Street families never got any formal education, and they shun formal society and all its trimmings; furthermore, they believe that formal education is outside their reach. A way to remedy this is to offer them non-formal education through an apprentice system where they can learn and develop a skill or a craft which they can develop into an enterprise. Such skills may include masonry, carpentry, welding, painting, brick laying, stone dressing, cookery, car washing, and general cleaning, to mention, but a few. These skills are sellable since they are in demand in both formal and informal sectors of business in society. Since non-formal training is expensive, an apprentice system can ensure an income as they train. // This paper highlights the plight of these individuals and source by showing that through non-formal education and resilience; they can be rehabilitated and transformed to become productive members of society. Non-formal education is indeed an education like any other. Its consideration, and inclusion in the national educational budgets, streamlining it by having its curriculum developed, and trainers identified then trained, is vital.