Childhood Poverty- International Contact

I have been communicating with Godfrey an Early Childhood Education Specialist from Kenya, Africa. (My second contact did not respond to any of my follow up emails.) In his current position Godfrey is working to train and educate teachers in early childhood development.

After sharing with Godfrey that the poverty level in the United States is growing and now at 14.3 percent as a nation and in New Jersey, where I live, it is 29 percent for children he replied that in Kenya the poverty rate is 56 percent. More than have the population is living in poverty and on less than a dollar a day.

Poverty affects the schools in a similar way to those in low-income areas of the US. There is limited or non-existent resources and low quality. There is a lack of materials and equipment necessary for effective learning to take place. We also discussed how play was important for learning and that many  early learning centers that are established in the slums or marginalized communities have very little land and therefore no place for the children to play. The educational outcome for students attending these centers is lower than students that attend schools in established communities where there are more resources.

Recently non-governmental organizations have become involve to help support the government’s efforts which he believes are insufficient in providing an equitable and quality education for all students even though they adopted the Education for All initiative. The Education for All initiative (EFA) is an international initiative of a coalition of national governments, civil society groups, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in affiliation with the World Bank to bring education to “every citizen in every society”. You can learn more about EFA by following the link below.

Since EFA was established in Kenya in 2003 basic education is now free but early childhood education was left out, resulting in very little governmental support. The most that is offered are a few grants to selected centers making quality early education unaffordable to most families in Kenya. Resulting in what we often see in the US, children of families that can afford to pay for early education enter primary school better prepared than those children that had no early education.

The same issue affects the quality and training of the teachers. Due to cost, very few teachers are trained in early childhood education, which results in the children being taught by unqualified personnel.  Godfrey also shared that the teacher salaries are very low in the poor neighborhoods leading to low morale and low quality of services provided.

Godfrey believes that positive change may be coming in Kenya as they passed a new constitution last year and now county governments will be responsible for early childhood education. He believes local communities will be better at effective change. He sees the biggest challenge will be the wide gap between the rich and the poor. He fears this will continue to influence the upward economic mobility of the poor.  

Another related issue is health care. Health care facilities are not easily accessible for most of the population in Kenya. Many families must travel a considerable distance to get to health care facilities or clinics. This results in many illnesses not being treated or vaccinated against. Many children become very sick or die from diseases which are easily treatable or preventable through vaccination. 

I now have a clearer picture of how so much of any nation’s economy and stability is tied to the education of it poorest citizens. I also now understand how parental education, access to health care and access to basic transportation are intertwined in their effect on children, their education and future earning potential. The mission of the EFA is an important one, as every citizen deserves a quality education for the good of all citizens.

Education for All http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,contentMDK:20374062~menuPK:540090~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:282386,00.html