Free Primary School Education. Sagam, Nyanza Province, Western

In January 2003, the then newly-formed Kibaki Administration introduced free primary school education for all Kenyans. Since 2003, 1 million extra children have enrolled. The programme has been commended worldwide and is the first of its kind in Africa. While highly regarded, the programme does suffer from a few problems. Class sizes are usually too big, now that most resources have been poured into paying tuition fees while spending on other areas, such as employing more teachers and building new schools remains constant. Many families also feel that while primary school tuition is free, spending on uniforms and class text books still remains prohibitively high. Lastly, the fact that secondary education was not free at the time was also a massive disincentive as many perceived sending a child only through primary education and then having to abruptly stop their education as a massive disincentive. All in all, 750,000 pupils still remain outside the Government provision of free primary school education though efforts are being made to try and bring those outside the system into the fold. Overall the programme is deemed to have been a success. The introduction of free secondary education in January 2008 was seen as going a long way to improving the overall literacy levels in Kenya and would certainly encourage many to start and remain within the education system who would otherwise have found it too costly. Doubts remain over how the Kenyan Government will find all the funds necessary to pay for the project, especially given the impact that the Kenyan troubles in January 2008 had on the economy and with the looming global recession about to set in for many ordinary citizens. All in all though, Kenya has gone a long way to proactively meeting one of the fundamental eight Millenium Goals set out to eradicate poverty worldwide.