More boys than girls dropping out of primary school— report

The boychild is increasingly dropping out of primary school compared to their girl counterparts, statistics by the Ministry of Education shows.

The data shows most boys drop out in Class 6 and have lower Class 8 completion rates compared to their girl counterparts.

The data contained in the strategic plan for the national education sector for 2023 to 2027, shows that though general enrolment in primary schools have been increasing, boys do not complete the eight-year primary schooling, dropping out mostly at Class 6.

“Survival rate at Class 6 was 92.9 per cent for boys and 96.2 per cent for girls while that of Class 8 was 79.7 for boys and 86.2 per cent for girls,” it shows.

“The survival rate was high for Class 6 compared to Class 8, the final grade of primary education. This implies that efficiency of the education system was better up to Class 6 but sharply declined in the last two grades of primary education,” the plan reads.

Also, the data shows parity in enrolment of boys and girls in primary schools as net enrolment rates for boys was 78.6 per cent while that for girls was 77.1 per cent.

School completion rates have also increased from 84.2 per cent to 87.8 per cent by 2021 against the target of 100 per cent.

Education experts and sociologists have consistently explained that a myriad of issues could be at play in explaining the phenomenon, including the fact that huge investments by non-state actors have gone into advocacy that encourage uptake of education by girls.

Insufficient fatherhood has also been cited as part of the problem jolting boychild education as well as lack of enough male role model.

“Number of schools increased from 32,344 to 32,469 resulting in enrolment increasing from 10.07 million in 2019 to 10.36 million in 2022. The gross enrolment rate increased from 104 per cent in 2018 to 107.9 per cent in 2021. Net enrolment rate dropped from 91.2 per cent to 78.1 per cent despite the set target being 93.1 per cent. The net enrolment rate for boys was 78.1 per cent while that of girls was 77.7 per cent in the same period,” the document says.

As intervention on the sagging trends of boys not completing primary schools, the Ministry of Education says that it rolled out the advocacy, social support and gender sensitisation programme to enhance retention of more learners in upper primary Class 7 and 8.

“The advocacy, social support and gender sensitisation programme was rolled out to improve retention of learners in upper primary Grades 7 and 8 [and] a total of 1,803 gender champions from targeted secondary schools trained on how to address gender issues.”

However, despite the woes, the report shows that transition from primary to secondary schools have remained impressive but fall short of the 100 per cent transition policy advocated by the past regime of president Uhuru Kenyatta.

“The transition rate from primary to secondary school increased from 83 per cent in 2017 to 91 per cent in 2020, [a development] attributed to the 100 per cent transition policy.”

2021 and 2022 saw a decline in the primary to secondary school transition at 78.5 per cent and 78.6 per cent respectively.

For secondary education, the ministry says, the enrolment rose by 31 per cent from 2.9 million students in 2018 to 3.8 million students in 2022, with gross enrolment rate rising from 70 per cent to 85 per cent in the same period.

The net enrolment rate in the secondary schools also rose from 53.2 per cent in 2018 to 70.5 per cent in 2022.

A side from the national average, there are large disparities between counties. Some 11 counties registered gross enrolment rates below 50 per cent, majority being devolved units in Asal areas.

Interestingly, Nairobi and Mombasa counties are also in this lot that have net secondary school enrolment below 50 per cent.

The counties include Mandera (18.7), Marsabit (19.6), Garissa (20.5), Wajir (23.3), Isiolo (24.8), Tana River (34.3), Nairobi (38.6), Samburu (40.2) and Mombasa (46.7).