Education, including education in Emergencies

Kenya has faced episodes of political instability, tribal clashes, cattle rustling, seasonal flooding among other shocks including conflict. According to the education cluster assessments (2017, 2018) these factors have resulted in closure of schools, poor enrollment and retention, particularly of girls. To worsen the situation, insecurity and the threat of terrorism has forced teachers from other parts of the country to abandon teaching in areas where the need is greatest. Prior to these, schools in these areas lacked basic facilities like classrooms, furniture, scholastic materials including WASH facilities, as confirmed by the AINK assessment (2018).

Whereas WFP and in some cases the county governments is supporting some schools with hot meals to pupils, a key challenge is the absence of cooking facilities, lockable stores and interference by other members of the community. Many schools in N. E Kenya do not have adequate facilities and where these exist they were constructed decades ago and not regularly maintained; these is in addition to overcrowding of the few schools (with comparatively better facilities) makes access to education quite limited.

Objectives; Provide a clean and safe place for children to learn; enable access to life saving education despite conflict and flooding during the rainy season; and provide access to sanitary places for food preparation to complement the school feeding program.

Key Activities:

  • Rehabilitation of damaged school facilities
  • Construction of classrooms and other learning facilities
  • Construction of Temporary Learning Spaces following the shocks
  • Mobilizing communities to rehabilitate their own schools.
  • Constructing new and sanitary school kitchens including stores
  • Distribution of teaching and learning materials, including furniture
  • Psychosocial support and messaging
  • Training of PTAs and School Management Committees
  • WASH in Schools

Most of these activities have been implemented with the support from UNICEF and other humanitarian actors/stakeholders.