• Reference: P-KE-IAZ-001
• Approval date: 17/12/2003
• Start date: 24/11/2004
• Appraisal Date: 02/10/2003
• Status: OngoingOnGo
• Implementing Agency: MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
• Location: COUNTRY WIDE

The project will have the following proposed components: 1)Improved access and quality of secondary education in poor districts and pockets of poverty

This component includes provision and/or rehabilitation of classrooms and science laboratories and dormitory facilities in approximately 350 schools. Furniture, equipment and learning support materials will be provided. Teachers will be suitably in-serviced in the teaching of Mathematics and Science. Bursary support will be provided for poor and needy students, especially girls.

2)Support for children with special learning needs

This will consist of: support for a better provision of non-formal education programmes for children in slum areas; and for the improvement of teaching and learning conditions for children with disabilities and special learning needs as part of the integration process.

3)Development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)

This component includes support for the review and development of a National Training Strategy and a pilot-scheme for upgrading 10 Youth Polytechnics.

4)Project management

This component will provide for improved capacity for effective project management.

i. Increase physical access and improving the conditions for the teaching of Science and Mathematics across 350 secondary schools in poorer areas of the country;

ii. Provide more access and learning opportunities in secondary schools and non-formal education centers to disdavantaged children and those with special educational needs to acquire appropriate basic education;

iii. Development of a more relevant and appropriate national TVET system, the strengthening of support services, and the revitalisation of 10 youth polytechnics for more effective vocational skills training.

The focus on expansion with quality improvement is both a response to the need to anticipate the effects of the Free Primary Education initiative, as it is of contributing to the range of vital intermediate skills that the country's evolving economy requires. A focus for quality improvement will be on teaching of mathematics and science subjects which are important for economic recovery and national development, but where student achievement remains low. As part of the Education For All agenda, there is need to extend and improve educational provision to students with special learning needs, as well as those particularly hard-to-reach, because of their location or their poor socio-economic conditions. There is a growing national conviction that parallel or complementary skills acquisition outside the basic education framework could be suitably guaranteed through a reformed TVET sysytem.

The project addresses the government's concern with poverty eradication by focusing on needy students in Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) areas and pockets of poverty in both urban slums and rural areas. Secondary schools in poor districts of four provinces with lower levels of education and large numbers of poor ' North Eastern, Eastern, Coast, and Rift Valley ' as well as 'pockets of poverty' in other provinces will be targeted. Economic growth, poverty reduction, improved prospects for employability of youth and gender equity are primary objectives of the project. With regard to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, appropriately packaged information will be made available to all teachers, instructors, students and trainees through the curriculum, via specially designed sensitisation materials and school-based co-curricular activities to reinforce prevention awareness and promote healthy living.

The piloting of an improved bursary scheme should reveal more appropriate and sustainable ways of expanding access to education among poor communities. Girls and orphans are a primary focus of the bursary scheme for expansion of access to secondary education, as well as in allaying the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on opportunities to learn.

The project has taken due consideration of the provisions within the medium-term policy focus for education in ASALs, which include the extension of the bursary support to pastoralist communities and the improvement of school facilities and the strengthening of boarding institutions to cater for nomadic pupils.

The TVET strategy development process and the pilot study for revitalization of the youth polytechnics should lead to more effective ways of providing skills training for the informal as well as the formal employment sector.

CHARO Ruth Karimi - OSHD2

Finance source	Amount
ADF	UAC 31,010,000
Government	UAC 3,630,000
Total	UAC 34,640,000