Education, youth and culture consultation: Reuben segment 2 (Bins, Simba Cool, & Rurie), 5.12.2018
Where? Mukuru kw Reuben segment 2 (Bins, Rurie and Simba Cool)
When? 05.12.2018
What? Education, youth and culture consortium consultation meeting (the consortium = WERC (Women Education Research Centre), Reuben Centre, New School (New York), Oxfam, Plan International, Daraja Initiative, Mukuru Slum Development Project, Elimu Yetu Foundation, Data Vault Systems, Slum Dwellers International-Kenya, and Akiba Mashinani Trust)
Who? Residents representatives from Reuben segment 2 villages (Bins, Simba Cool, & Rurie); Muungano alliance federation and support professionals; representatives of consortium organisations.
>What is a segment and how are the consultations organised?
About the community consultations:
This note is from the first of three sets of community consultations by the Education, youth and culture consortium of the SPA.
This first set of consultation meetings are segment-level dreaming sessions, where residents share their views and aspirations with the consortium, and where the consortium works with the community to identify issues and challenges, community priorities, and ideas for potential solutions – all relating to education, youth and culture.
After the first consultation meetings, the consortium will develop a draft sectoral plan for the segment – this draft sectoral plan will be derived from the dreams shared in the first set of consultation meetings and tested against the existing reality of Mukuru.
In later sets of meetings, first at segment level, the consortium will seek residents’ feedback on these draft plans, which will then be revised accordingly. And then all 8 of the SPA consortiums will together share the final integrated development plan, for adoption by Mukuru’s residents.
Overall challenges facing early childhood institutions, primary and secondary schools, and tertiary education.
Negligence by parents. Most parents tends to take their children to school for to avoid responsibility.
Poor structures. Most classes are poorly ventilated hence a lot of heat or cold during the seasons.
Lack of learning materials. Lots of the schools in the area does not have the necessary learning materials.
Overpopulation. The only public in the area had a population of 610 in class 8 only with 8 streams.
Trained personnel. The schools lack trained personnel leading to low quality education.
Fewer toilets. with a high population in schools the toilets cannot service all the students.
Location. Some schools are located near illicit brews dens and in noisy environments this distracts learning process.
Expensive. Most schools are very expensive in the area 3000-5000 per term in upper classes.
Flooding. During rainy season the schools in the area flood the classes are flooded.
Sexual assault. In some schools children have been defiled by their teachers or seniors.
Low quality education. Most schools do not have qualified teachers the quality of education is below standard.
Infrastructure. Most roads are impassable during the rainy season, some roads are very tiny.
Community library. The community does not have a community library; this could help the kids in the area have individual study to improve.
Lab equipment. All the secondary schools in the area do not have a laboratory; kids cannot do practicals.
Lack of discipline. Most schools in the area have very undisciplined students who neither listen to their parents nor their teachers.
There are 3 tertiary centres in the in the area, namely Hope Worldwide, Ruben Centre and Mukuru Skills which is located in Kingston but also serves the people in the area. These institutions offer courses like hairdressing, tailoring, catering, masonry and plumbing.
EARLY CHILDHOOD SCHOOLS
ISSUE 1: Lack of toilets
EFFECTS: Poor health; Waterborne disease
PROPOSALS: Construction of toilets
RESPONSIBILITY: County government
TIME: Immediately
ISSUE 2: Water shortage
EFFECTS: Water borne diseases
PROPOSALS: Provision of water tanks
RESPONSIBILITY: County government
TIME: Immediately
ISSUE 3: Lack of bedding
EFFECTS: Exposure to diseases like pneumonia
PROPOSALS: Provision of bedding
RESPONSIBILITY: County government
TIME: Immediately
ISSUE 4: Inadequate learning materials
EFFECTS: Poor quality education
PROPOSALS: Provision of learning materials
RESPONSIBILITY: County government
TIME: Immediately
PRIMARY SCHOOLS
ISSUE 1: Child labour
EFFECTS: Absenteeism; School drop out; Poor performance
PROPOSALS: Implementation of children’s office; Implementation of approved schools
RESPONSIBILITY: Parents; Teachers; Community at large
TIME: Short term
ISSUE 2: Discrimination of posting trained teachers
EFFECTS: Lack of quality education; Poor performance; Poor implementation
PROPOSALS: All stakeholders to be involved in private schools
RESPONSIBILITY: Ministry of education; National and county governments
TIME: Long term
ISSUE 3: Poor learning facilities
EFFECTS: Lack of conducive learning facilities
PROPOSALS: Creation of space
RESPONSIBILITY: Stakeholders; Community; County government
TIME: Short term
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
ISSUE 1: Lack of public secondary schools
EFFECTS: Poor performance
PROPOSALS: Construction of secondary schools
RESPONSIBILITY: County government and other stake holders
TIME: 1 year
ISSUE 2: Lack of qualified teachers
EFFECTS: Lack of quality education
PROPOSALS: Employment of qualified staff
RESPONSIBILITY: County government
TIME: immediately
ISSUE 3: Lack of learning materials
EFFECTS: Poor performance
PROPOSALS: Government to provide learning materials
RESPONSIBILITY: County government; stakeholders
TIME: immediately
TERTIARY LEVEL
ISSUE 1: Lack of polytechnics
EFFECTS: Early marriages; Drug abuse; prostitution
PROPOSALS: Creating employment
RESPONSIBILITY: County government; Community; Non-governmental organisations
TIME: immediately
ISSUE 2: Lack of job opportunities
EFFECTS: High crimes; Prostitution; Early marriages; Drug abuse
PROPOSALS: Construction of training centres
RESPONSIBILITY: County government; Stakeholders
TIME: immediately
ISSUE 3: Lack of cooperation
EFFECTS: Negligence of the kids by their parents
PROPOSALS: Parents to have time with their kids and encourage them
RESPONSIBILITY: Parents; community
TIME: immediately
About the Education, youth and culture consultation consortium:
The Education, youth and culture consortium is one of the 7 sectoral consortiums* under the Mukuru SPA. It is led by Nairobi City County and supported by several non-governmental organizations—WERC (Women Education Research Centre), Reuben Centre, New School (New York), Oxfam, Plan International, Daraja Initiative, Mukuru Slum Development Project, Elimu Yetu Foundation, Data Vault Systems, Slum Dwellers International-Kenya, and Akiba Mashinani Trust.
This consortium is mandated to establish the prevailing situation in the planning area, which encompasses the three areas of Mukuru kwa Reuben, Mukuru kwa Njenga, and Viwandani, in terms of education, youth and culture facilities in and around Mukuru and how they are run—and how the Mukuru SPA planning process relates to various relevant policies and frameworks, including:
Kenya’s 2003 move towards a free primary education program, which greatly improved the enrollment rates of both boys and girls in Kenya.
The creation of the Kenyan Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Development, a measure established by the Kenyan government, which supported the achievement of gender equity in the country. This ministry broke from the former Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services that seek to create systems that support gender equality in Kenya and improve the carrying out of international goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals, that support gender equity and equality.
The National Policy on Gender and Development, which was enacted in 2000 and was established for the government to have a usable framework to enhance gender mainstreaming within different areas of the Kenyan government and use resources for achieving gender equity within education development in Kenya effectively.
In 2007, a Gender Policy in Education was created through the Ministry of Education with the goal of having a framework to establish several gender-responsive education sector programs, including the measure to raise the levels of gender parity at all levels of education.
The strategy created by the Kenyan government known as Vision 2030, which was established in order to improve development programs being carried out to enhance Kenya’s economic growth until the year 2030.
A clear proponent that aims to help Kenya achieve gender parity within education development is the adoption of affirmative action as a policy by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology. This policy was created with the goal of increasing access and opportunities for women in higher learning institutions during admission.
The Education, youth and culture consortium is doing this by: conducting theme-specific surveys and research in Mukuru; identifying gaps in the existing literature and information; and preparing a sectoral situation analysis report.
Key to all of this is the consortium’s community consultation mandate – which is to sit with Mukuru’s residents, and listen and gather their views on how they want education, youth and cultural services provision in their neighbourhoods to be transformed. These views will then be adopted into revised sectoral plans, and finally harmonized—together with the community views collected by the other 6 SPA sectoral consortiums—to create an ‘integrated development plan’ for Mukuru.
The SPA process is designed to be community driven, and participation of the community is a requisite. The Kenyan Constitution makes the County governments responsible for ensuring this right to participate in decision-making on matters affecting citizens is observed. But crucially, in order to ensure that the community contributes to such participation forums from an informed perspective, it’s important for them to properly understand their situation.