When reading fails: A crisis in schools that we can't ignore

Education PS Julius Bitok issues KCSE Chemistry Paper 1 to candidates at Kapkondot Secondary School, Kerio Valley, on November 3, 2025. [File]

Half of Grade Six learners cannot read and comprehend a Grade Three English storybook! This should alarm and indeed shock all of us in the education sector. This is not just bad news; it is a sobering signal that something fundamental is not working as it should. Literacy is the foundation upon which all other learning rests. When that foundation is weak, the entire structure of education becomes unstable.

Every once in a while, a statistic emerges that should make a nation pause, fall silent, and look at itself in the mirror. I think we are at such a moment. Recent research findings by Usawa Agenda have unmasked the truth that we have been avoiding confronting. The Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (FLANA 2025), released by the organisation’s Executive Director, Dr Emmanuel Manyasi, reveals a deeply disturbing reality. The question is; what does this truly mean for our learners and for the future of education?