Free Primary Education and After in Kenya: Enrolment impact, quality effects, and the transition to secondary school.

Abstract

Based on case-study data from a small group of Kenya primary schools, this paper first examines local-level variations in the impact of the 2003 Free Primary Education programme. The effects varied widely: in two high impact schools, intakes more than doubled; while in several others, effects were negligible, either because local demand was already fully met, or in two cases because the schools had erected barriers to increased enrolment (the high barrier schools). A second section enquires into secondary-school transition patterns among the graduates from the case-study schools. Although overall transition rates were high, there were wide variations in the type of secondary school entered; and these in turn had massive consequences for the chances of leavers to ultimately qualify for access to university. The policy implications of these findings are discussed in a final section.

Citation

CREATE Pathways to Access Series, Research Monograph Number 37, ISBN: 0-901881-44-9, 42 pp.

Free Primary Education and After in Kenya: Enrolment impact, quality effects, and the transition to secondary school.

Published 1 January 2010