Abstract
In response to Kenya's goal of free and universal primary education for every child by 2015, this paper describes a few of the obstacles that one of the most visible periphery populations in Kenya, orphaned children, face in attempting to reach this objective. The most frequently cited barriers of children and their caretakers to consistent school attendance included: inability to pay school fees, lack of a school uniform, difficulty in providing assis- tance to orphaned children, presence of disease/illness in the family and disruption of education due to political violence. Conducted in a Kikuyu community in the Kinangop District of Central Kenya following the 2007/2008 presidential election riots, this study utilized multiple regression, logistic regression and MANOVA statistical tests to determine if families caring for orphaned children of primary school age differed significantly from families with no orphans in the home. Discriminant function and Mahalanobis testing further revealed differ- ences in types of households, with the presence of orphans in the home (particularly AIDS orphans) significantly increasing the amount of school fees owed per family. Qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews with families and open-ended interviews with their primary school aged children contextualized study results and inform policy recommendations.
Highlights
The road to success through education is continually repeated to Kenyan children from governmental billboards, radio messages, parents, church leaders, and teachers
The regression equation provided a baseline for predicting the fluctuations in school fees reported by families as those caring for AIDS orphans were projected to pay approximately $1400 ksh more per month than those who do not
Logistic regression correctly predicted 94.2% of the time which families were caring for orphans based on the amount of school fees paid and who was caring for the child (Table 2)
Summary
The road to success through education is continually repeated to Kenyan children from governmental billboards, radio messages, parents, church leaders, and teachers. In the agricultural township of Njabini in Kenya where this research study took place this message has a desperate undertone—lack of an education equals poverty. The pivotal question to consider now is “What is lost and gained?” by the adoption of formal schooling (Levinson, Borman & Eisenhart, 2000). Addressing this question is especially pressing when considering the status of vulnerable children in Kenya who are instilled during childhood with the importance of completing primary school without the necessary resources to do so. We must move past the “modernist conceit that schooling is unambiguously good for the individu- als and groups that encounter it” (Hamman, 2002) and focus our attention upon those least likely to reap the benefits of a ‘formal’ education
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