What?
A major social issue in Kenya is education. Kenyans spend a total of 16 years in school, 8 years in primary, 4 years in secondary, and 4 years in tertiary. In 2003, the Kenyan government created a Free Primary Education Policy and did the same for secondary education in 2008. Although the government enacted these policies, 1,7 million children still do not attend school, which is the ninth highest out of every country in the world, and one in ten children never complete primary school. 26% of young men and 39% of young women are semi-illiterate in Kenya.
Why?
Poverty is also a major issue in Kenya and many Kenyan children are not able to attend school simply because their families cannot afford it. Although the government implemented free education, they hired one teacher for about every 60 students and as a result, many Kenyan parents do not believe their children are getting a quality education at these schools. Because of this, parents look for private schools to send their children to, but the private schools are too expensive so their child never receives an education. This creates problems for the children their whole lives because it makes it near impossible for them to get a job. 50% of men and 80% of women that live in the slums between the ages of 15 and 24 do not have a job. Out of the ones that are employed, 60% of men and 40% of women are in poverty.
solution
There are a couple solutions to fix the quality education problem in Kenya. One solution would be to create private schools with less fees. The government could also put aside some money from the taxes they collect that would be used to pay for the private education of children coming from poorer families. Then, parents would feel that they are sending their child to a quality school to receive a quality education. Another solution is to hire more teachers for the free public schools. The Kenyan school system should hire one teacher for every 25 or 30 students. This way, the teacher can focus more on each child and provide them with the help they need. The teacher will also be able to teach more effectively and give more assignments since they have a more manageable amount of students and will not have to worry about how long it will take to grade one assignment. This would drastically improve the quality of free public education because each student would get more quality time with the teacher and the teacher can give individual attention. Hiring more teachers is not cheap, so a charity organization would be set up that accepts free will donations.