Role of Community Dialogues in Enrollment and Retention of Children in Primary School in Mathare Informal Settlements, Nairobi County- Kenya
Abstract
This project presents the findings of a study on the role of community dialogues in
enrollment and retention of children in primary school within Mathare informal
settlements. The study was carried out in Mathare slums. The overall objective of the
study was to explore the role played by community dialogues in enrollment and
retention of children in primary school. Empowerment framework was used in this
study. The framework argues that empowerment is both a value orientation for
working in the community and a theoretical model for understanding the process and
consequences of efforts to exert control and influence over decisions that affect one’s
life, organizational functioning, and the quality of community life. The findings
related to the objectives established that community dialogues had to a greater extent
minimized cases of non-enrollment in primary schools. Further the findings found out
that through community dialogue initiatives children were able to be retained in
primary schools with Mathare informal settlements. These initiatives through
community knowledge and organization included; holding elected area leaders to
account with regards to utilization of public funds, mobilizing resources for most
vulnerable children and amicably dealing with barriers to children enrollment in
primary schools. Based on these outcomes, the study recommends that community
dialogues should be utilized while seeking rooted information on community
knowledge as pertains to causes and possible solutions to community concerns. There
should be proper training of community dialogue facilitators so that community
knowledge on causes of community concerns is understood before implementation of
any community development work to ascertain long lasting solutions thus
development agencies, Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as
government bodies should incorporate community dialogues in their strategies to
attaining their project goals
Publisher
University Of Nairobi
Subject
Mathare Informal SettlementsRights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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