In Kibera, one of the biggest slums in Nairobi, the children’s parents have been unable to take them to school in the past because of the school levies charged. Many simply could not afford school fees. But thanks to the introduction of free primary education, Ayany school like many schools across Kenya has witnessed over 100 per cent school enrolment.

With an average income of about US$ 6.45 a month, money that has to cover house rent and food, many parents used to find it hard to spare any to pay for their children’s education.

Silvia Akinyi was one such child. At the age of 10 she still had not joined Standard One. At one time she had no hope of doing so in the foreseeable future. Her father, who scouts for casual jobs, could not raise the US $2.58 to enrol her in school, let alone afford US$ 7.74 for a school uniform.

Silvia recalls, “My parents used to quarrel with me whenever I asked them to take me to school. They would tell me school was for the rich and not for poor people like us,”

It was agonising for her to stand at her doorstep every morning and wave goodbye to neighbourhood friends as they left for school.

“I would think to myself, these children are gifted and lucky to have parents who can take them to school,” says Stella.

Now a pupil at Ayany primary school and one of the many who gave us infectious smiles as we entered their classroom, Stella is still not sure if this is for real. “Sometimes I think I am dreaming. Many things have not gone right in our family,” a forlorn looking Silvia says. She says she wants to be a doctor when she grows up so that she can care for the poor in the slums.

With government’s introduction of free primary education in Kenya early this year, in line with its 2002 General Election pledge, Silvia’s dream became possible. “We saw an opening and my parents went out to fight for a place for me,” she says.

However, the start of the new school term brought challenges for the Kibera School. With the arrival of an overwhelming number of children, Ayany, like many other schools, found itself with too few desks, not enough stationery and little equipment. That’s when UNICEF stepped in to accelerate a project started with the Kenya Ministry of Education the previous year: the Child-Friendly Primary School Initiative. While the introduction of free education addressed the issue of ‘school access’, this initiative aimed to address the issue of ‘school quality’ to ensure that once children entered school they’d be inspired to stay. UNICEF immediately increased the supply of educational materials and recreational equipment to enable those teachers who were trained in 2002 to fully implement what they had learned and convert the basic Standard 1 classrooms into stimulating learning environments. Currently there are around 30 schools in Nairobi, which are benefiting from this initiative.

In stimulating classrooms, pupils are no longer packed into rows of desks with too few seats. Mats of the floor allow for flexible seating arrangements making it easier for the teacher to interact with the children and encouraging the children to participate and interact with each other. The walls are covered in drawings and charts prepared at little or no cost by the teacher and pupils. Blackboard space at eye level is demarcated for each child so that everyone has a space to draw and write.

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