User:Njeri Muturi/sandbox

Gender Disparities in Kenyan Education refers to the differences in outcomes observed between different sexes in the Republic of Kenya. Specifically, gender disparities allude to the one sex being disadvantaged over the other in experiences and outcomes. Education disparities can be seen in different enrollment rates, dropout rates, survival rates among the sexes and many other participation rates. Often these phenomena happen together. Finally, gender disparities in education can also include a difference in the quality of education received. In Kenya, gender disparities in education may be created or perpetuated by policy, ethnicity, region, religion, and age.

Overall Performances and Transition Rates
Over the years, enrollment in all levels of education has greatly increased in Kenya. During the last two decades of colonial rule, 1943-1963, it is estimated that girls took up just 25% of all children enrolled in the workforce. In 1953, only one woman, or 6% of all students, achieved post-secondary education(Chege &Sifuna, 2004). Since then, according to a UNICEF study, enrollment has increased and the gender gap has reduced in size. UNICEF estimates as of 2012, 83.2% of youth (ages 15-24), are literate. In 1973, the girls made up only 43 per cent of total primary school enrollment. In the educationally advanced districts, this proportion was close to 50 per cent, while in the districts in the pastoral areas and coast province it was below 32 per cent (Kinyanjui, 1977)

UNICEF states females actually show slightly higher enrollment than males in primary school, 84.5% enrollment compared to 83.5% for boys. In addition, overall survival rate to the last year of primary school is a high 96.1%. However the relationship between male and female enrollment switches and widens in secondary education. In secondary school, 51.6% of enrolled students are male and 48.4% are female. UNICEF reports that the greatest gender disparity exists among the poorest quintile group of Kenya, with attendance rates being 33.1% and 25% for males and females respectively. What is very clear is that there is a distinct difference in rates of enrollment for females in certain districts, with the highest district, Kinnyaga enrolling 51.8% of its girls in school and the lowest district, Wajir only enrolling 13.9% of its girls (Chege & Sifuna, 2004).

Regional and Ethnic Disparities
In Kenya, there are over 43 ethnic tribes. In the recent years, violent ethnic conflict has come to the attention of the media, however it is believed by many that this violence represents a larger problem in Kenya, uneven resources and outcomes amongst its ethnic groups. Kenyan regions were determined by the British during colonization to reflect ethnic differences, and enrollment in different levels of education varies by region as a result (Kinyanjui, 1977). Regional differentiation has been linked to uneven capitalist development that occurred in Kenya in the in the first half of the twentieth century. Some regions were chosen as central regions, and periphery regions were given different, lesser functional roles, resulting in different outcomes, accentuating ethnic difference. This regional differentiation, meant to create a class of capitalist farmers to replace the peasants during colonialization, created disparities between the rural workers and the poorest marginal group (Kinyanjui, 1977).

History of Ethnic and Regional Disparities
Before 1900, Christian Missionaries set up schools mostly along the east coast of Kenya, before swiftly moving inland (Kinyanjui, 1977). The main missionary settlements were in the present Central Province, Eastern Province, Western Province, and Nyanza Province, but mainly in the Central and Western Province. There, were very few settlements in the Rife Valley Province and parts of Coast Province. This lowered concentration of schools in these districts continued over the decades. The main tribes that were penetrated most deeply by the initial missionary spring in the 1920s were the Luo, Luhya, Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, and Kamba.

The Luo and Kikuyu were the first tribes to embrace Western systems, including education and are also the groups that have advanced most greatly socio-economically among the tribes (My own sentence). Other tribes like the Kalenjin, who lived in the Rift valley, previously mentioned to have had less missionary presence, were slower to embrace Western education because of their regional disadvantage. The spreading of education in Kenya was a political one as all tribes initially resisted the presence of missionary force until they realized the socio-economic benefits. Education was a way to escape the forced labor and unfair market conditions under colonial presence. As Kinyanjui goes on to say, over time the different tribes decided to take more power over their educational systems. The first to do so were the Kikuyu. It seems that as missionary presence intensified in an area, there was usually initial protest followed by subsequent acceptance of Western education. After this process, tribal advancement in education began. (Kinyanjui, 1977). This phenomenon varied in strength in different regions. It is in these regions that have, over time, been socio-economically disadvantaged and grouped into different ethnicities, that girls experience greater disparities in education. Thus, Kikuyu, Luo and other groups to have benefitted from this early educational influence and experience greater academic achievement and enrollment in the long term for women than in other regions and other ethnicities.

Perpetuation of Ethnic and Regional Difference
Post-colonial illegitimate elections have perpetuated certain regions favored over others (Kinyanjui, 1977).

Achievements in Gender Disparities in Kenya
Because of dwindling land reserves, a higher stress has been put on formal education .The Kenyan government has also poured vast amounts of resources into educating the population, including introducing universal primary schooling. Education has increasingly become more valuable since more Kenyans have been able to get more middle and higher income jobs due to education.

Achievement in Codified Law
In 1972 the Law of Succession was enacted that requires equal access to property at death when owner dies without a will.

Ethnic, Tribal, and Family Barriers
All four major tribes in Kenya (Kikuyu, Luo, Luyia, and Kamba) are polygynous, patrilineal, and usually patrilocal. For example, traditionally (before the 1972 Law of Succession) Kikuyus, Luos, and Luyias only sons can inherit land from their fathers, with the exception of Kamba women being able to inherit from their husbands. However often a women may not be able to assert her rights to inherit court due to low literacy among women, expenses in court, and corruption. According to Cubbins, although females are increasingly more apart of productive labor in the households, in rural areas they are mostly in charge of agriculture production that goes back into the households, where fathers mainly have control over the cash crops, which bring the economic resources to invest in children. Because women are more likely to invest their resources into their children’s education, this traditional practice of males controlling cash crops poses significant concern for gender disparities in Kenya.

One of the reasons the Kikuyus, the tribe to assimilate into Western education first, refused to enter into this formal education was because missionaries often put restrictions on groups who practiced female cliterodectamy. This barrier kept Kenyans from being able to access formal education from the missionaries.

In some tribes, girls who receive formal education may be seen as breaking traditional tribal norms and rejecting the tribal lifestyle. As Lesorogol observed in the Samburu tribe, educated women may differentiate themselves by enforcing conceptual differences along the dimensions of knowledge/capabilities and morality/sexuality. Many times when educated women show knowledge of Swahili or English, the nation’s national languages, or work outside the home, they are seen as showing off their superiority or not valuing traditional roles for the woman. Educated women may viewed by their tribes, family members and greater society as worldly, a definition which often comes with associated sentiments like disrespectful, arrogant, or even promiscuous.

National Barriers
Even though the Law of Succession was passed in 1972, women are still denied access to disputing these rights in court due to either corruption, lack of knowledge of their rights under the law, and court fees.

Government aid to rural areas where technical skill in agriculture may be high is often not very much, contributing to lower amount of resources parents can invest into their children’s education, especially daughters. Women and children make up most of these households in rural areas, where fathers may be absent for long periods of time.

Until 1979, Kenya required people to pay for the first 6 years of schooling, making these years extremely expensive for families and lowering the number of children who could enter schools. Of course, of those who were chosen, males were more likely to be chosen than girls. This early disparity inhibits the growth of females in education because women are more likely to invest resources into providing education for their daughters if they have also gotten an education.

Consequences of Gender Inequality
When denied access to formal education, girls may grow up illiterate, and without the tools to gain the economic resources needed to invest in the education of the education of the next generation Kenyan women. In addition, education often prolongs marriage, and because marriage almost always means the end of education for a women, additional years of schooling can give a woman more opportunities to stay in school and gain economic tools before marriage. Girls who do not continue with school are also more likely to encounter forced marriages and the forceful practice of female genital mutilation.

According to Hughes and Kilemi Mwiria, when women do go into education they are more likely to go into areas like teaching, law, and arts subjects over areas like science, engineering and medicine. Between 1980 and 1987, bachelors degrees in education and arts accounted for between 63.7% and 67.6% of the total attained by women. Trends like this may lead to the narrow isolation of women into service and teaching jobs.

Increasing the number of Female Teachers
Beyond the primary school level, female teachers are significantly fewer in number than their male counterpart. Kenya represents a diverse group of religious groups.The first largest are the Christians. The second largest group is the Muslim group. Many Muslim families prefer for their daughters to be taught by females only and increasing the number of female teachers may subsequently increase female participation, as well as an increase in the number of female administrators (Chege & Sifuna, 2004). For this to happen supplementary laws including those that protect maternity leave, equal pay, and discrimination in the workplace may have to be implemented. Female leaders in school often empower girls to reach higher in education, especially in Kenyan post-secondary school, where female teachers are particularly rare. In the prestigious University of Nairobi, according to Chege and Sifuna, less than 20% of teachers are female.

Evening out Regional Disparities
Rural areas all over Kenya suffer from disproportionately low resources in education and receive significantly less funds from the government than urban areas. More schools with more female teachers must be created in rural areas and policies must be enacted to stem the surge of government funds to solely urban areas.

Increasing Land and other Economic Resources to Women
Since the land reform acts of the 1950s, it has been difficult for women to possess land, where before they had easy access through traditional kinship arrangements. Government aid has also been low to rural areas and has not directly benefited woman. Current laws put into place to ensure women access to their land must make court procedures more readily available for women. Women also must be educated on loan procedures and know how to gain economic power, so that they can transfer these resource to their children in the form of paid education. Men are four times more likely to get a loan than women in Kenya.

According to Cubbins, men’s education and women’s education are both highly related to the education of both girls and boys, and so increasing general educational attainment should decrease gender disparities in education over time.