School factors influencing refugee children access to primary education in Kasarani district Nairobi, Kenya.
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the school factors influencing refugee
children access to primary education within Kasarani district, Nairobi, Kenya. Kasarani
district has a large number of refugees children but all do not access education despite
the fact that basic education should be free at elementary levels. Four research objectives
were designed to guide the study; to establish how the language of instruction influence
the access to primary education for refugee pupils, to examine the relevance of
curriculum, to establish the influence of protective environment of school, to establish
effects of certification on refugee education and academic certificates awarded to
refugees children .The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The target
population for this study comprised of 21 head teachers from public primary schools with
refugee children, 420 teachers from the schools and2, 500 refugee pupils from public
primary schools in Kasarani district, Kenya. 7 schools in Kasarani District were randomly
sampled for the study. The study utilized questionnaires for teachers, headteachers and
pupils. A test-retest technique or co-efficient stability method was used to estimate the
degree to which the same results could be obtained with a repeated measure of accuracy.
A correlation coefficient of about 0.74 was obtained for the teacher’s questionnaires and
0.72 for headteachers questionnaires. Data from the field was collected, cleaned, coded
and recorded. Data collected by use of the questionnaire, was coded, and analyzed. Data
was presented using tables and graphs. The study established that; The education policies
on language of communication did not adequately cover the refugees children, Most of
the refugees in Kasarani are in Kenya illegally, so they fear taking children to schools,
the refugee’s children have equal learning opportunities with the Kenyan children, the
government takes the records of the refugee children in schools, the refugees children
have undergone a different education system than the Kenyan education system and
therefore, the certification system of the country of origin is totally different. It was found
to be difficult to establish exactly the level a child was, before he /she left school and that
Language barriers hinders education and learning opportunities to the refugees. The study
recommends that; The government should offer protection to the refugee children and
families, and shield them from the regular harassment by the police, the government or
UNHCR should ensure appropriate registration of the refugees and issuing of the
appropriate documents for recognition ,the government should deploy more teachers to
cater for the large number of pupils and probably those who understand the languages of
refugee origin, to the schools in areas with many refugees, so as to enhance learning and
understanding of the refugee children and that the government through MOE and the
Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development should develop a curriculum for refugee
children.
Citation
Department of Educational Administration and Planning,Publisher
University of Nairobi
Description
Masters
Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5962]