Schools2030 Kenya
Schools2030 Kenya operates in the coastal region of Mombasa and in Lamu.
Kenya is rich in both culture and geography, with a plethora of ethnic groups and languages within its borders and terrain that varies from tropical coastlines and rainforests to savannah and mountain ranges. Of a total population of 55 million, 39% of Kenyans (21.5 million) are under 15 years old; 1.13 million of these children are out of school.
Kenya’s education system is considered amongst the strongest on the continent, and the Government of Kenya has in recent years allocated significant budget to implement education reforms. These reforms include the introduction of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and measures to improve transition rates from primary to secondary school. Kenya’s education system does face some significant challenges, including large class sizes, high drop-out rates in secondary school and low learning outcomes in poorer communities. The Early Childhood Development sector has struggled with insufficient public spending and uneven service delivery.
In 2020, school closures interrupted learning for over 17 million children, who missed more than six months of formal education. During this time, there was an increased risk of violence, child labour and of deleterious mental well-being. Alongside a government keen on expanding holistic learning and teaching methods, Schools2030’s school-driven approach provides opportunity for Kenya’s education system to innovate with local insight in response to these challenges.
Our Team in kenya
Halima Shaaban
Schools2030 National Coordinator
Zenab Said
Programme Manager – Coast Region
Muhsin Abubakar
Programme Officer
Anna Hadida
Project and Communication Officer
Rupert Corbishley
Regional Education Advisor, AKF East Africa
Emily Tusiime
Regional Assessment Coordinator, AKF East Africa
ASSESS
In February 2021, Schools2030 Kenya worked alongside national education stakeholders from the Ministry of Education, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, the Early Childhood Network, and the Kenya National Examination Council (endorsed by the NAC) to select 5 learning domains for each cohort.
With support from Oxford MeasurEd, the team have designed learning outcome assessment tools for each of these domains, and these have been used to collect data on students’ holistic learning levels. These robust tools were developed for primary and secondary level alongside 10 schools, and then reviewed and refined by a further 30 schools.
At pre-primary level, the team have adapted Save the Children’s International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) tool to measure learning outcomes and worked with ECD Measure to adapt the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory (BEQI) tool to measure learning environment quality.
Access examples of assessment tools
from across our programme countries.
All these tools are available free to download below and will continue to be refined and iterated to ensure robust psychometric validity.
INNOVATE
The team in Kenya has been working closely with schools to develop innovations that reflect needs as determined by the learning domain selection and assessment data. They have now conducted Human-Centred Design (HCD) trainings with over 100 educators in more than 70 schools, who have used a contextualised version of the HCD Toolkit as a reference for developing their innovations. ThinkPlace – Kenya’s Learning Partner – will document the HCD design process and develop reports to determine the efficacy of the process, the potential of the innovations arising from it and to document winning ideas from the local and national showcase events.
Amani ‘peace’ clubs
DESIGNED BY: Kizingitini Secondary School, Lamu
TO IMPROVE: Reconciling Tensions
AGE GROUP: 15+
The peace clubs are after-school co-curricular groups where learners engage in various activities to enhance their collaboration and team spirit.
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This includes participating in football matches and other sports (where the teams are formed of students from different villages obliging them to work together), peace walks and other community service exercises.
Ustadi Club Platform
TO IMPROVE: Foundational numeracy, digital skills, collaboration, problem-solving
AGE GROUP: Out of School youth
The platform links youth with mentors who support them to grow their talents and passion along the themes of leadership, entrepreneurship, arts and STEM.
Grade 3 new words TV and tree words library
DESIGNED BY: Kizingitini Boys Primary School
TO IMPROVE: Literacy, collaboration, problem-solving, self-efficacy
AGE GROUP: 10+
This innovation was developed to address literacy because learners lacked self-efficacy and confidence in reading. The new word TV contains words and sentences that are written progressively and a learner can scroll through as they read.
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The material is interactive and engaging so as the learner manipulates it, their confidence slowly builds and they are better able to converse with new words. The learner also gets an opportunity to lead his/her peers in in the activity and this builds his/her confidence in interacting with other people.
Download our HCD Tools for Kenya to start creating education innovations in your school.
Schools2030 HCD Toolkit: Kenya
Full version
Schools2030 HCD Toolkit: Kenya
Sprint version
Schools2030 HCD Facilitator Guide: Kenya
Schools2030 HCD School Leader Guide: Kenya
SHOWCASE
Coming Soon
NEWS
partners
National Advisory Committee members
Directorate of Policy, Partnerships, and East African Affairs
Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development
Kenya National Examinations Council
Teacher Service Commission
Ministry of Education – Quality Assurance
County Government, Mombasa
County Government, Lamu
State Department for Youth Affairs
Porticus Africa
Development Partner – IREX
Private Sector Partners
Madrassa Early Childhood Programme
Learning Partner – YUX