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.