Mwai Kibaki legacy: Education reforms led to higher enrolment rates

President Mwai Kibaki talks to school children on his way To Ol Kalou Nyandarua District on August 15, 2004 [File]

The late president Mwai Kibaki will be remembered for his contribution in the education sector from nursery to university.

Just three months before he exited power in 2013, Kibaki said he was proud of the education sector reforms undertaken during the 10 years of his tenure.

“We are particularly proud of the significant gains made in the provision of education for our people,” he said during the launch of the first Columbia Global Centre in Africa in January 2013.

The statement summed up Kibaki’s efforts to better the education sector, through broad based reforms that saw access to education expanded for all.

The most outstanding accomplishment of Kibaki’s first term was Free Primary Education which was introduced on January 6, 2003. In his second term, he introduced tuition-free secondary education in public schools.

Within the first year of the roll out, more than one million children were in primary schools. Emphasis on school uniforms were relaxed as the government provided learning stationary and text books, easing the burden on parents.

Primary schools saw more than 80 per cent of children enrolled. During his first term, the enrollment moved from 5.9 million to 8.2 million in 2007. “This [FPE] has seen the level of enrolment in primary schools increase from five million in 2003 to more than eight million pupils today (2013),” he said in 2013. 

By 2020, the total enrollment in all public primary schools’ schools stood at about 10.2 million.

Prof Obonyo Digolo of the University of Nairobi said Kibaki must be credited with far reaching education reforms. “He made some very good decisions for the sector some which have been implemented by the present regime under different names such as the 100 per cent transition,” said Prof Digolo.

He said that at basic education level, Kibaki came up with two critical documents that streamlined nursery education. “Even though expansion of universities was noble, it also watered down quality as most institutions have continued to duplicate programmes,” Prof Digolo said.

Dr Kilemi Mwiria, former Education assistant minister said then that free primary education became the motivation for expanding secondary education. “Thus, the introduction of subsidised secondary education in the form of day schools dotting virtually every sub location,” said Mwiria.

Kenya has also introduced free secondary schooling programme where the government pays tuition fees while the parents cater for the other costs.

To date, the government still provides capitation per child of about Sh1,420 per primary school learner and some Sh22,244 for each secondary school student.

Kenya Union of Post Education Teachers (Kuppet) said they will remember Kibaki’ for his love for education.

“Along with the expanded access to education, his administration implemented far-reaching reforms in school management and addressed the working conditions for teachers,” said Akello Misori, Kuppet secretary general. “Kuppet  earned its respectable position during the Kibaki era.”