Impact of the Global Partnership for Education Funding in Kenya

Press Release

Kenya has been an ardent member of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) since 2005. Between 2005 and 2020, our country has received a total grant of about USD209 Million to support the education sector interventions.

The GPE financing has over the years supported the Government of Kenya, which allocates more than 25 per cent of its total annual budget to education. We thank the His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta for recognising the important role of education and the need to safeguard the education budgets.

Through the financial support of GPE, the Government of Kenya has been able to achieve the following important milestones:

1. The Government has procured and distributed a total of 10.5 million text books, including those meant for Special Needs Education in the spirit of our policy of “Leave No Child Behind”. This well organised central procurement of textbooks has led to a cost reduction on expenditure on books by up to 70%. The good practice under the GPE has been adopted by Government, which has enabled us to distribute more than 60 Million textbooks to public primary and secondary schools. Thanks to this arrangement, we have now achieved a 1:1 learner-textbook ratio.

2. Through the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), we have trained more than 102,000 Grade 1, 2 and 3 teachers in innovative ways of teaching Mathematics under CBC. Our assessments show that through this training, we have managed to improve learning achievements in Early Grade Mathematics competencies to incredible levels.

3. The GPE support has helped us to enhance classroom teacher support on pedagogy and content mastery by Curriculum Support Officers.

4. The Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) has utilised GPE funds to develop Curriculum designs for the Competency Based Curriculum in primary teacher education and enhanced remote learning interventions.

5. All tutors in Primary Teacher Training Colleges have been retooled to be able to effectively implement the CBC.

6. Under the GPE fund. School Improvement Programme (SIP), we have improve the learning environment and learning outcomes in 4,000 previously low performing schools.

7. The GPE support has enabled the TSC to roll out the Teacher Performance and Appraisal System. This has helped to enhance the teacher/pupil contact hours due to reduced absenteeism of teachers.

8. The Ministry has developed an online data collection system (NEMIS), which is now the single source of truth of data on schools and enrolment.

9. The GPE financing has helped to facilitate financial management and procurement processes in the education sector.

From the foregoing, it is evident that the GPE funding has been a critical anchor of Kenya’s robust education reforms, which are geared towards nurturing every learner’s potential and talent through implementation of the CBC.

The project has also opened up engagement opportunities with other partners in the education sector. More partners now have renewed engagement with the Ministry of Education by bringing in more financing.

Owing to the good partnership between Kenya and the GPE, our country is now among the pilot countries for the GPE’s financing arrangement for the period 2021 – 2025. The new USD 53.3 Million System Transformative Grant is expected to support the full implementation of our education reforms. We will also benefit from a further System Capacity Grant of USD 3.8 Million and Multiplier grant of USD 40 Million.

As a country, we are very excited with the GPE partnership and prepared to continue cooperating and putting in place measures that will ensure the partnership continues as per our agreement.

On behalf of the Government of Kenya, I am today releasing a statement, which underscores our firm commitment to protecting domestic financing for education.

This statement is anchored on the bold step that His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, The Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson made to come together to launch the fourth replenishment campaign for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in October 2020. The campaign aims to raise at least US$ 5 billion for the 2021-2025 cycle of GPE and provide critical additional resources that are required for GPE to continue playing its leading role in supporting educational transformation across the world. With only a few weeks left before the Global Education Summit scheduled for 28″ and 29th July, 2021 in the United Kingdom, Kenya’s commitment to this cause remains solid.

We believe that this campaign will help us to come up with resources to address the widespread disruptions to learning that have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic necessitated the closure of our schools for more than six months in Kenya. The aim was to protect our children, teachers, and their families from the threat of the virus.

The social and economic ramifications of these school closures, which include lost learning time, a widening of education inequality, increased vulnerability to social and personal risks including teenage pregnancy and substance abuse, economic uncertainties related to the pandemic, and distinctive socio-cultural pressures, have put more children at risk of dropping out of school than any other time in the past two decades.

The Time to Act to Save our Future is Now. This is why the Kenya Government is firmly in support of the GPE Replenishment Campaign (2021-5).

Therefore, today I humbly join my President His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other world leaders in demonstrating my commitment to the future of our children by “raising my hand’ in support of GPE’s 2021-2025 Replenishment Campaign.

PROF. GEORGE MAGOHA, EGH
CABINET SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION