Factors Influencing Access To Quality Education For Integrated Internally Displaced Persons: A Case Of Mohu Farm Camp In Nyandarua County Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to carry out an assessment of the factors influencing access to quality education in integrated IDP resettlement areas in Nyandarua County in Kenya. The study area was Mohu farm focussing on schools within the farm and those in its vicinity. Target respondents included school going children, parents, teachers and local government education leaders and community leaders; a total of 108 respondents of the targeted 150 provided data for the study, representing an overall response rate of 79.2%, a sufficient response index for data analysis and interpretation of the results. This study focused on access to quality education almost 10 years after the post-election violence of 2007/2008 which saw many families displaced from their homes, land, disrupting livelihood – access to basic needs and adversely impacting on access to quality education for school going children. The aspects that were evaluated on school factors, included school structures (safe spaces), learning facilities, school learning resources, trained teachers, finding revealed that while the access aspect seemingly had not been significantly affected by the crises, and that the integration of the IDPS had facilitated access to education in that students continued to access education, most educators, teachers, deemed the learning resources constrained, this is to be interpreted to imply that quality of education was deemed at the danger of compromise in such set ups (integrated setups). Domestic factors such as access to livelihoods, and adequate standard of living, had a mean rating of over 2.5, representing a high extent of influence on access to quality education. Similarly, community socialization and access to effective remedies and justice for the displaced persons got the highest rating representing the highest perceived degree of influence on access to education for the integrated IDPs. The study further established, evaluating the levels of agreeableness on effectiveness and responsiveness of the education access interventions, that to a satisfactory degree, the support extended to the integrated IDPs from various quarters had significantly facilitated access to education and made an attempt to foster the quality aspect of education. Lastly, participation of the stakeholders in the school as an educational input geared at facilitation of access to quality education in IDP integrated setups, indeed does highly influence access; findings revealed that stakeholders’ participation in the schools had been active and the areas that registered significant participation were; exposure on sanitation (cleanliness, hygiene, water usage, diseases etc.), societal Ethics and life, Safety (wellbeing, protection, living), Awareness on environment protection, Life Skills and vocational training, and Counselling. This study recommends deliberate involvement of all stakeholders in the operational priorities for access to education in such crises setups; these stakeholders are undoubtedly the closest relational proximity to children’s needs are better placed to voice out needful, relevant educational interventions towards access, quality and wellbeing of the target beneficiaries.