Educational planning and practices in Kenya

Education plays a key role in reducing poverty and enhancing life choices. Therefore, provision of widely spread education and training opportunities has been a long-standing objective of the Government of Kenya. Since Independence, the Government has sought to address the challenges facing the education sector through a range of policy initiatives. Nevertheless, a major focus has been the attainment of Universal Primary Education and the need for achieving greater access, participation, equity, quality and relevance. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, the country has been faced with new challenges for educational policy, which incorporate both the right to universal access to education, and the need to enhance rapidly the development of skilled human resources. This is despite the government efforts to bring in major transformations with more than ten reviews by special education commissions and working parties having been established since independence. Moreover, increased public demand for education and training over the years has strained the government efforts in achieving its goal, and in response partnerships have been intensified with parents and communities, individual investors, civil society and donors so as to salvage the emerging challenges facing the education sector as it grows. On the contrary, there is continued evidence of disarray of business in the education system in Kenya today and so, at all levels the pressing challenge of how to improve quality, enhance efficiency and at the same time reduce unit costs must be addressed. This paper therefore seeks to explore and address the constraints facing educational planning right from basic to higher education, and how these constraints can be resolved so as to create a long-term solution to the problems that are putting education for the Kenyan child at stake.