Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, 2002
The paper focuses on skill training opportunities for females in Technical Education Programmes (... more The paper focuses on skill training opportunities for females in Technical Education Programmes (TEP) in Kenya. In Africa, labour markets have become so competitive that females need to be assisted to enter such markets. Expanding skill-training opportunities for females in training institutions could meet this demand. Informal interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data that were analysed within the framework of human capital theory. Sex balance was lacking in TEP and most institutions were internally inefficient, with endogenous factors forcing trainees out of the training programmes.
The study examines the combined effects of key elements in parental leadership on academic perfor... more The study examines the combined effects of key elements in parental leadership on academic performance. In the wake of inadequate learning resources, parental leadership becomes an indispensable learning input for children’s academic performance. The discourse utilized data collected from 2005 to 2010 in a longitudinal study involving 1,549 children who sat for the national standardized examination in Kenya. Our findings showed that monitoring and aspirations are essential elements of parental leadership and have direct and positive effect on children’s learning achievement. The effects were stronger among children from urban informal settlements compared with those from urban formal settlements. The effect of parental aspiration on children’s performance was mediated through parental support and monitoring in informal settlements. The study provides evidence on the extent to which parental leadership enhances academic performance. This is useful to parents, teachers, and policy mak...
In 2008 nine African Universities and four African research institutions, in partnership with non... more In 2008 nine African Universities and four African research institutions, in partnership with non-African institutions started the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) to strengthen doctoral training and research capacity on health in Africa. This study describes particular aspects of the CARTA program that promotes collaboration between the PhD fellows in the program, and determines the patterns of collaborative publications that resulted from the intervention. We reviewed program monitoring and evaluation documents and conducted a bibliometric analysis of 806 peer-reviewed publications by CARTA fellows published between 2011 and 2018. Results indicate that recruiting multidisciplinary fellows from various institutions, encouraging registration of doctoral-level fellows outside home institutions, and organizing joint research seminars stimulated collaborative research on health-related topics. Fellows collaborated among themselves and with non-CARTA researchers. Fellows co-authored 75 papers (10%) between themselves, of which 53 (71%) and 42 (56%) included fellows of different cohorts and different disciplines respectively, and 19 (25%) involved fellows of different institutions. CARTA graduates continued to publish with each other after graduating-11% of the collaborative publications occurred post-graduationindicating that the collaborative approach was maintained after exiting from the program. However, not all fellows contributed to publishing collaborative papers. The study recommends concerted effort towards enhancing collaborative publications among the CARTA fellows, both doctoral and post-doctoral, which can include holding research exchange forums and collaborative grant-writing workshops.
This background paper was prepared as part of the Mastercard Foundation's Secondary Education in ... more This background paper was prepared as part of the Mastercard Foundation's Secondary Education in Africa (SEA) initiative. The study was conducted by the African Population and Health Research Center's (APHRC) Education and Youth Empowerment (EYE) unit. We are grateful to all MasterCard Foundation staff, especially Steve Cumming, Phuong Hoang and Milena Novy-Marx, and APHRC researchers who supported the study at various stages. We further extend our gratitude to the research participants in the key informants' interviews for their cooperation and support. We would also like to express our gratitude to Kelvin Khaemba, our research assistant who tirelessly facilitated access to online databases and materials; and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments. Last but not least, we wish to thank Mastercard Foundation for funding this study. The views presented in this paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by those mentioned.
This article examines the quality of primary school inputs in urban settlements with a view to un... more This article examines the quality of primary school inputs in urban settlements with a view to understand how it sheds light on benchmarks of education quality indicators in Kenya. Data from a school survey that involved 83 primary schools collected in 2005 were used. The data set contains information on school quality characteristics of various types of schools in Nairobi. On the basis of the national benchmarks, the quality of education provided in government schools was shown to be “better” with regard to infrastructure, teacher qualifications, and textbook provision than that provided in all the nongovernment-owned schools. However, nongovernment schools have smaller class sizes and lower pupil—teacher ratio (PTR). The bad news is that government schools have large class sizes and higher PTR and hence low levels of teacher—pupil interaction. Nongovernment schools had poor classroom structures and a higher pupil—textbook ratio, particulary private individually owned schools and community-owned schools. It also emerges that although in the government schools, student learning space is constrained by the class size, the student learning space in nongovernment schools is constrained by the classroom size. Meeting quality benchmarks in primary schooling, therefore, remains a challenge among urban populations.
The onset of COVID-19 made governments and other education actors prioritize distance learning, p... more The onset of COVID-19 made governments and other education actors prioritize distance learning, particularly through education technologies (EdTechs). Most sub-Saharan African countries adopted and adapted this approach. This paper examines the extent of EdTechs’ deployment in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic among marginalized and vulnerable populations. A cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study from which this paper drew its data, with both secondary and primary data utilized. The findings show that marginalized/vulnerable learner populations are still left out on EdTech supported learning. This article proposes salient recommendations that could help advance inclusive education discussion and related EdTechs’ discourse.
This article contributes new evidence on factors associated with low achievement among pupils in ... more This article contributes new evidence on factors associated with low achievement among pupils in urban informal neighborhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. The authors use three different data sets to examine the effect of residence in particular neighborhoods, pupil gender, primary school type, and household socioeconomic status on pupil achievement in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results for 2005 and 2006. Results suggest that residence in Nairobi’s informal neighborhoods of Korogocho and Viwandani, enrollment in a public school, and one’s gender, if female, are the strongest explanatory variables for low achievement. Policy implications from the study results are discussed.
We analyze the cost and cost-effectiveness of an early childhood development and education (ECDE)... more We analyze the cost and cost-effectiveness of an early childhood development and education (ECDE) program in Kenya which aimed at preparing pre-primary children for primary school. A cluster randomized controlled trial design was used. Enrolled schools were provided with three different treatment packages that aimed at improving the instructional quality of ECDE centres complemented with a health component. We find that for every additional US$ 1 spent on the second treatment package, the intervention yields 0.16 extra percentage points in public ECDE centres over two years of participation. This translates to a cost of US$ 14.83 per child. Similarly, in private ECDE centres, results suggest that the yield of extra learning score per US$ 1 spent on the second treatment package is 0.36 percentage points, which translates to a cost of US$ 17.01 per child. Our findings indicate that combining the training of teachers, supervision staff, teacher support, books and teachers’ guides may b...
The present context signals a pressing need for concerted efforts to galvanize the SSA CYR agenda... more The present context signals a pressing need for concerted efforts to galvanize the SSA CYR agenda to ensure that the enjoyment of key rights becomes a reality for all of the region’s young people. Such an undertaking is particularly timely at this juncture as the AU marks the 25- and 10-year anniversaries of the adoption of the ACRWC and AYC respectively. Further the new global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework affirms a focus not only on children and youth but on the pursuit of human rights principles and commitments (UN 2015). This paper seeks to offer conceptual and empirical perspectives to contribute to an advancement of the CYR agenda in SSA. The conceptual framing draws on relevant scientific perspectives on the international human rights regime as well as on a scrutiny of salient population and development discourses and agendas for the Africa region. Building on these the framework: 1) Illuminates the extent to and ways in which the CYR agenda in fact concurs a...
This article examines why poor urban households utilize low-fee private schools despite the gover... more This article examines why poor urban households utilize low-fee private schools despite the government’s pro-poor free primary education program in Kenya. Cross-sectional data collected in 2010 through a demographic surveillance survey is analyzed. Students’ parents responded to questions concerning their perceptions of the quality of schooling after the introduction of free primary education. In total, 6,660 students living in 4,220 households are included in the analysis. A structural equation model was estimated to investigate how perceived quality of schooling, direct schooling costs, and distance to school affected the household’s choice of school. Results show that poor households utilize low-fee private schools because of physical convenience, rather than quality of education and/or low-fees charged. We conclude that enhanced accessibility to government schools among poor urban households and provision of capitation grants targeting children from these households rather than the schools are urgently needed.
Investment in sub-Sahara Africa's (SSA’s) youth through effective capacity development, invol... more Investment in sub-Sahara Africa's (SSA’s) youth through effective capacity development, involving adoption of contemporary skills development approaches, is integral in alleviating the region’s high youth unemployment rates as it will equip the youth with skills needed for employment. Skills that are needed are those that holistically develop the youth skills-set, including technical/hard and soft-skills, dubbed whole youth development (WYD) skills. This paper thus explores Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students’ understanding of soft-skills and its development. The paper utilizes data collected from a TVET study in Kenya that was carried in 9 of the 47 counties, targeting learners aged 15–24 years. The selected counties were those that had national polytechnics for national representation, except one (Turkana county), which was selected to represent youth from marginalized counties. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted for this study. ...
Research shows that children living with two biological parents outperform those raised in other ... more Research shows that children living with two biological parents outperform those raised in other family structures. A growing number of children do not live with two biological parents in sub-Saharan Africa, but few studies have examined the consequences. In this article, data from the African Population and Health Research Center collected in the slums of Nairobi are fitted to a logistic regression model to test the hypothesis that two-parent families are most favorable to schooling outcomes in Kenya. After controlling for socioeconomic variables, the effect of family structure on educational attainment of children persists. Children in two-parent households were 40% (unadjusted odds ratio [UOR] = 1.40, p = .01) and 16% (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.16, p = .1) more likely to be in the right age for grade compared with children in oneparent households. The study calls for strengthening single-parent households to achieve better educational outcomes for the children.
The free primary education policy has led to a significant increase in primary school enrollment ... more The free primary education policy has led to a significant increase in primary school enrollment in the country, from 8.6 million children in 2008 to 9.9 million in 2012. Increased enrollment complicated the work of teachers in the classrooms in the wake of FPE. This article seeks to document the challenges that teachers face in Kenyan classrooms across six urban sites in Kenya. Data come from the Education Research Program at the African Population and Health Research Center, collected in the months of January to March 2012. This article presents data from Focus Group Discussions, which were analyzed using thematic qualitative analysis. Results show that teachers across the six urban sites faced numerous challenges, with the most striking one being the process of evaluation by district quality assurance officers, who need to take into consideration the circumstances in which teachers teach in the schools across the country. Overall, the study called for the need to take the context...
Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, 2002
The paper focuses on skill training opportunities for females in Technical Education Programmes (... more The paper focuses on skill training opportunities for females in Technical Education Programmes (TEP) in Kenya. In Africa, labour markets have become so competitive that females need to be assisted to enter such markets. Expanding skill-training opportunities for females in training institutions could meet this demand. Informal interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data that were analysed within the framework of human capital theory. Sex balance was lacking in TEP and most institutions were internally inefficient, with endogenous factors forcing trainees out of the training programmes.
The study examines the combined effects of key elements in parental leadership on academic perfor... more The study examines the combined effects of key elements in parental leadership on academic performance. In the wake of inadequate learning resources, parental leadership becomes an indispensable learning input for children’s academic performance. The discourse utilized data collected from 2005 to 2010 in a longitudinal study involving 1,549 children who sat for the national standardized examination in Kenya. Our findings showed that monitoring and aspirations are essential elements of parental leadership and have direct and positive effect on children’s learning achievement. The effects were stronger among children from urban informal settlements compared with those from urban formal settlements. The effect of parental aspiration on children’s performance was mediated through parental support and monitoring in informal settlements. The study provides evidence on the extent to which parental leadership enhances academic performance. This is useful to parents, teachers, and policy mak...
In 2008 nine African Universities and four African research institutions, in partnership with non... more In 2008 nine African Universities and four African research institutions, in partnership with non-African institutions started the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) to strengthen doctoral training and research capacity on health in Africa. This study describes particular aspects of the CARTA program that promotes collaboration between the PhD fellows in the program, and determines the patterns of collaborative publications that resulted from the intervention. We reviewed program monitoring and evaluation documents and conducted a bibliometric analysis of 806 peer-reviewed publications by CARTA fellows published between 2011 and 2018. Results indicate that recruiting multidisciplinary fellows from various institutions, encouraging registration of doctoral-level fellows outside home institutions, and organizing joint research seminars stimulated collaborative research on health-related topics. Fellows collaborated among themselves and with non-CARTA researchers. Fellows co-authored 75 papers (10%) between themselves, of which 53 (71%) and 42 (56%) included fellows of different cohorts and different disciplines respectively, and 19 (25%) involved fellows of different institutions. CARTA graduates continued to publish with each other after graduating-11% of the collaborative publications occurred post-graduationindicating that the collaborative approach was maintained after exiting from the program. However, not all fellows contributed to publishing collaborative papers. The study recommends concerted effort towards enhancing collaborative publications among the CARTA fellows, both doctoral and post-doctoral, which can include holding research exchange forums and collaborative grant-writing workshops.
This background paper was prepared as part of the Mastercard Foundation's Secondary Education in ... more This background paper was prepared as part of the Mastercard Foundation's Secondary Education in Africa (SEA) initiative. The study was conducted by the African Population and Health Research Center's (APHRC) Education and Youth Empowerment (EYE) unit. We are grateful to all MasterCard Foundation staff, especially Steve Cumming, Phuong Hoang and Milena Novy-Marx, and APHRC researchers who supported the study at various stages. We further extend our gratitude to the research participants in the key informants' interviews for their cooperation and support. We would also like to express our gratitude to Kelvin Khaemba, our research assistant who tirelessly facilitated access to online databases and materials; and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments. Last but not least, we wish to thank Mastercard Foundation for funding this study. The views presented in this paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by those mentioned.
This article examines the quality of primary school inputs in urban settlements with a view to un... more This article examines the quality of primary school inputs in urban settlements with a view to understand how it sheds light on benchmarks of education quality indicators in Kenya. Data from a school survey that involved 83 primary schools collected in 2005 were used. The data set contains information on school quality characteristics of various types of schools in Nairobi. On the basis of the national benchmarks, the quality of education provided in government schools was shown to be “better” with regard to infrastructure, teacher qualifications, and textbook provision than that provided in all the nongovernment-owned schools. However, nongovernment schools have smaller class sizes and lower pupil—teacher ratio (PTR). The bad news is that government schools have large class sizes and higher PTR and hence low levels of teacher—pupil interaction. Nongovernment schools had poor classroom structures and a higher pupil—textbook ratio, particulary private individually owned schools and community-owned schools. It also emerges that although in the government schools, student learning space is constrained by the class size, the student learning space in nongovernment schools is constrained by the classroom size. Meeting quality benchmarks in primary schooling, therefore, remains a challenge among urban populations.
The onset of COVID-19 made governments and other education actors prioritize distance learning, p... more The onset of COVID-19 made governments and other education actors prioritize distance learning, particularly through education technologies (EdTechs). Most sub-Saharan African countries adopted and adapted this approach. This paper examines the extent of EdTechs’ deployment in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic among marginalized and vulnerable populations. A cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study from which this paper drew its data, with both secondary and primary data utilized. The findings show that marginalized/vulnerable learner populations are still left out on EdTech supported learning. This article proposes salient recommendations that could help advance inclusive education discussion and related EdTechs’ discourse.
This article contributes new evidence on factors associated with low achievement among pupils in ... more This article contributes new evidence on factors associated with low achievement among pupils in urban informal neighborhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. The authors use three different data sets to examine the effect of residence in particular neighborhoods, pupil gender, primary school type, and household socioeconomic status on pupil achievement in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination results for 2005 and 2006. Results suggest that residence in Nairobi’s informal neighborhoods of Korogocho and Viwandani, enrollment in a public school, and one’s gender, if female, are the strongest explanatory variables for low achievement. Policy implications from the study results are discussed.
We analyze the cost and cost-effectiveness of an early childhood development and education (ECDE)... more We analyze the cost and cost-effectiveness of an early childhood development and education (ECDE) program in Kenya which aimed at preparing pre-primary children for primary school. A cluster randomized controlled trial design was used. Enrolled schools were provided with three different treatment packages that aimed at improving the instructional quality of ECDE centres complemented with a health component. We find that for every additional US$ 1 spent on the second treatment package, the intervention yields 0.16 extra percentage points in public ECDE centres over two years of participation. This translates to a cost of US$ 14.83 per child. Similarly, in private ECDE centres, results suggest that the yield of extra learning score per US$ 1 spent on the second treatment package is 0.36 percentage points, which translates to a cost of US$ 17.01 per child. Our findings indicate that combining the training of teachers, supervision staff, teacher support, books and teachers’ guides may b...
The present context signals a pressing need for concerted efforts to galvanize the SSA CYR agenda... more The present context signals a pressing need for concerted efforts to galvanize the SSA CYR agenda to ensure that the enjoyment of key rights becomes a reality for all of the region’s young people. Such an undertaking is particularly timely at this juncture as the AU marks the 25- and 10-year anniversaries of the adoption of the ACRWC and AYC respectively. Further the new global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework affirms a focus not only on children and youth but on the pursuit of human rights principles and commitments (UN 2015). This paper seeks to offer conceptual and empirical perspectives to contribute to an advancement of the CYR agenda in SSA. The conceptual framing draws on relevant scientific perspectives on the international human rights regime as well as on a scrutiny of salient population and development discourses and agendas for the Africa region. Building on these the framework: 1) Illuminates the extent to and ways in which the CYR agenda in fact concurs a...
This article examines why poor urban households utilize low-fee private schools despite the gover... more This article examines why poor urban households utilize low-fee private schools despite the government’s pro-poor free primary education program in Kenya. Cross-sectional data collected in 2010 through a demographic surveillance survey is analyzed. Students’ parents responded to questions concerning their perceptions of the quality of schooling after the introduction of free primary education. In total, 6,660 students living in 4,220 households are included in the analysis. A structural equation model was estimated to investigate how perceived quality of schooling, direct schooling costs, and distance to school affected the household’s choice of school. Results show that poor households utilize low-fee private schools because of physical convenience, rather than quality of education and/or low-fees charged. We conclude that enhanced accessibility to government schools among poor urban households and provision of capitation grants targeting children from these households rather than the schools are urgently needed.
Investment in sub-Sahara Africa's (SSA’s) youth through effective capacity development, invol... more Investment in sub-Sahara Africa's (SSA’s) youth through effective capacity development, involving adoption of contemporary skills development approaches, is integral in alleviating the region’s high youth unemployment rates as it will equip the youth with skills needed for employment. Skills that are needed are those that holistically develop the youth skills-set, including technical/hard and soft-skills, dubbed whole youth development (WYD) skills. This paper thus explores Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students’ understanding of soft-skills and its development. The paper utilizes data collected from a TVET study in Kenya that was carried in 9 of the 47 counties, targeting learners aged 15–24 years. The selected counties were those that had national polytechnics for national representation, except one (Turkana county), which was selected to represent youth from marginalized counties. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was adopted for this study. ...
Research shows that children living with two biological parents outperform those raised in other ... more Research shows that children living with two biological parents outperform those raised in other family structures. A growing number of children do not live with two biological parents in sub-Saharan Africa, but few studies have examined the consequences. In this article, data from the African Population and Health Research Center collected in the slums of Nairobi are fitted to a logistic regression model to test the hypothesis that two-parent families are most favorable to schooling outcomes in Kenya. After controlling for socioeconomic variables, the effect of family structure on educational attainment of children persists. Children in two-parent households were 40% (unadjusted odds ratio [UOR] = 1.40, p = .01) and 16% (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.16, p = .1) more likely to be in the right age for grade compared with children in oneparent households. The study calls for strengthening single-parent households to achieve better educational outcomes for the children.
The free primary education policy has led to a significant increase in primary school enrollment ... more The free primary education policy has led to a significant increase in primary school enrollment in the country, from 8.6 million children in 2008 to 9.9 million in 2012. Increased enrollment complicated the work of teachers in the classrooms in the wake of FPE. This article seeks to document the challenges that teachers face in Kenyan classrooms across six urban sites in Kenya. Data come from the Education Research Program at the African Population and Health Research Center, collected in the months of January to March 2012. This article presents data from Focus Group Discussions, which were analyzed using thematic qualitative analysis. Results show that teachers across the six urban sites faced numerous challenges, with the most striking one being the process of evaluation by district quality assurance officers, who need to take into consideration the circumstances in which teachers teach in the schools across the country. Overall, the study called for the need to take the context...
Uploads
Papers by Moses Ngware