NONFORMAL EDUCATION: THE MISSING LINK IN THE ELIMINATION OF WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR IN KENYA

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• NON-FORMAL EDUCATION THE MISSING LINK IN THE
  ELIMINATION OF WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR IN
  KENYA
• Presentation By
• Kiura Bernard, ILO/IPEC Kenya
• Presented at the
• International Conference on Child Labour
• and Child Exploitation
• CAIRNS Convention Center, Australia
• 3 5 August 2008

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Presentation outline

• Background Education Child Labour
• Education Key challenges
• NFE Weaknesses that curtail elimination of child
  labour
• Recommendations
• Case study of a REAL NFE in Kenya

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Focus

• Mureithi (not real name), 13 years old, is among
  3000 plus children working in Dandora dumpsite in
  Nairobi, Kenya. Living alone in a rented room in
  the Dandora slum, Mureithi desires to go to
  school but has to choose between education and
  work. With no flexible school programme to
  accommodate his work schedule, Mureithi chooses
  to work in order to eke out a living. I dont
  work I dont survive in Nairobi, he sums up his
  story. For him, there is no privilege of choice
  between school and work

• Children in or vulnerable to being pushed into
  worst forms of child labour
• Over age learners who are in CL or vulnerable to
  dropping out of school. What alternative for them

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Education The Right Response

• Nearly 1 million children out of school despite
  introduction of FPE in 2003 (KNBS 2007)
• Great improvement in primary school enrolment
  (GER 104 in 2004 compared to 69 in 2001)
• Increased primary to secondary transition rate
  (70)

• Incidence of child labour reduced from 1.9
  million in 1998/99 to 950,000 in 2005/06
• Changing face of C.L in Kenya

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Education The Right Response

• 1948 UN UDHR stipulated that basic education is a
  fundamental human right. The declaration called
  for primary education to be both compulsory and
  free. Declaration founded base for UBE as a
  right.
• 1960 Convention against Discrimination in
  Education
• 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social
  and Cultural Rights and Civil and Political
  Rights
• 1973 ILO Minimum Age Convention,
• 1979 CEDAW
• 1989 Convention on TVE,
• 1989 CRC
• 1999 ILO WFCL
• All underscored the sanctity of the right to
  basic education

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Education The Right Response

• Experience has shown that efforts to achieve
  Education for All (EFA) and the progressive
  elimination of child labour are inextricably
  linked
• The preamble of Convention No. 182 calls for
  action that takes into account the importance of
  free basic education and recognizes that the
  long-term solution to ending child labour will
  involve universal education
• Weiner has shown that compulsory education
  effectively stopped child labour in the
  industrialized countries, e.g. in Britain, the
  participation of 10-14 year olds in the labour
  market fell drastically after the introduction of
  compulsory education.
• school attendance may be easier to enforce than
  minimum age laws.

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Education Challenges in SSA

• The challenge of investing education as a means
  of eliminating CL in SSA is the education
  systems.
• At independence, huge investment in education
  programs. This declined in the 1970s/80s/90s
  due to under-funding, SAPs/cost sharing,
  household poverty
• High drop outs, low enrolment/retention high
  unemployment reflection of education not
  responding to market demands/failed system
• Call for alternative delivery channels emerged
• In 2000, the Dakar Forum owned up said formal
  education channel alone was in itself a
  limitation to the achievement of the EFA goals,
  advocated for the the third channel i.e.
  informal and non-formal education delivery models.

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NFE/NFS concept for this paper

• NFE is any intentional and systematic educational
  enterprise (usually outside of traditional
  schooling) in which content is adapted to the
  unique needs of the students (or unique
  situations) in order to maximize learning and
  minimize other elements which often occupy formal
  schooling
• (Kleis et.al definition)

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Birth of NFE/NFS

• NFS emerged in Kenya as a response to failed
  formal system. E.g. in Nairobi there are 200
  government primary schools compared to 1500 NFS.
  NFS responding to access challenge
• In Kenya they replicated the formal education in
  non-formal set up same curriculum, pedagogy,
  admin requirements (uniforms, teaching/learning
  materials etc)
• Unlike Uganda (COPE) and Tanzania (COBET), NFS in
  Kenya initiated by entrepreneurs, civil society,
  faith based institutions
• Legislation of NFS in Kenya is amorphous

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Failure of NFE in addressing CL

• Curriculum Inflexible formal school curriculum.
  Children remain in school whole day (remedial
  lessons on weekend)
• Fees Must charge fee to remain operational/make
  profit for owners
• Quality Have untrained, underpaid teachers,
  managed by non-educationalists, lack basic
  teaching/learning materials
• Quality assurance No supervision by
  professionals, teachers dont attend in-service
  courses
• Uniforms Children must be in uniform
• No certification by KNEC (exam council)

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Failure of NFE in addressing CL

• No policy to regulate registration, operation of
  NFS
• Curriculum only developed in 2007, most NFS are
  not using it (will not serve owners interest)
• So who goes to NFS? Children of the Elite in
  the informal settlements, not Mureithis of Kenya
  
• Needy, the very vulnerable children locked out of
  both formal and non-formal education, hence
  remain in C.L, with no hope of going back to
  school. These are the 1M out of school and in WFCL

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Recommendations

• Affirmative action to reach educationally
  excluded children, especially girls, slum
  dwellers and marginal communities
• Kenya must clearly define NFE, stick to it and
  invest in it
• Recognize replicate other good NFE practices,
  e.g. UNDUGU UBEP
• Invest in NFE
• Certification of NFE graduates, entry and
  re-entry plan
• Have NFE policy in place
• Actualize the NFE curriculum
• Mainstream elimination of CL in Edn progs
• Build capacity of NFE providers

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• EG OF A REAL NFE Program
• The Undugu Society of Kenya (USK) an NGO founded
  in 1973 by the late Father Arnold Grol. He wanted
  to help street children, commonly referred to as
  chokola, a Swahili word denoting scavengers. The
  street children problem emerged in the early
  1970s, was the result of rural-urban migration
  and the growth of slum settlements in Nairobi.
  Depending on tips from motorists, the boys earned
  out miserable subsistence income from begging or
  stealing. At night, they would retreat to their
  shacks in the slums or simply huddle outside the
  cold pavements. Father Grol spent time on the
  streets talking to the boys. Gradually they
  explained the circumstances which brought them
  onto the streets poor backgrounds, inability of
  their parents to afford education or even to
  provide basic needs such as food, clothing and
  shelter. On the streets, they said, they could
  make some money and buy food. Still, they yearned
  for care and protection like other children of
  their age.

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• USK Education and Training Program comprises the
  Undugu Basic Education Program (UBEP). UBEP
  caters for children living on the streets or in
  slum dwellings who are unable to pursue formal
  education. The three-year program, followed by a
  year of learning basic technical skills, offers
  basic literacy and numeracy skills to learners,
  and runs parallel to formal primary schools.
• Under UBEP, a calendar year is a phase learners
  go through three phases. Basic skills are learnt
  during the fourth year. Phase 1 is equivalent to
  Grades 14 in formal primary school, and Phases 2
  and 3 to Grades 56 and 78. Carpentry and
  joinery, sheet metal work and tailoring are
  examples of the skills taught. The core subjects
  are Languages, Mathematics, Business Education,
  Religious education, Social Studies, and Art and
  Crafts.
• UBEP learners receive hot meals and are not
  required to wear school uniform. The age of
  admission into these special schools is 12 years
  and over. UBEP is a unique intervention, which
  has boosted support for NFE in Kenya. The
  government now recognizes and supports this form
  of education as one of the ways of reaching the
  nearly one million school-age children who
  currently do not attend school.

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• UBEP graduates usually require further skills
  training. The Informal Skills Training Program is
  an apprenticeship training program which also
  prepares young people for life beyond USK and
  helps them handle circumstances they may
  encounter in adulthood. UBEP Graduates are
  priority candidates for USK Skills Training
  Program. Recruitment takes place through the UBEP
  schools and social workers from the area program.
  Trainees are apprenticed to practicing artisans
  for five days a week for practical lessons, and
  attend a theory class every Saturday for one
  year. Trainees also prepare for the Government
  Trade Test examinations. Common trades taught on
  the skills training program are motor mechanics,
  carpentry and joinery, tailoring, sheet metalwork
  and hairdressing.

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THE END. ASANTE SANA!