Schooling among Nairobi slum residents in the wake of free primary education

Abstract: In the year 2003, the Kenyan government launched a Free Primary Education
policy, which propelled a notable increase in the country’s primary school
enrolment rates. The country’s capital city of Nairobi, however, lagged behind
most of the nation, with an enrolment rate of 62%, compared to a 104% gross
enrolment rate country-wide. Connections have been made between Nairobi’s
poor enrolment rates and the high proportion of children living in the city’s
informal settlements or slums. In this paper, therefore, we use a community
case-study approach to examine the experiences of one informal settlement
in Nairobi following the implementation of the free primary education policy.
Drawing on audio-taped, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions
with a range of community members and school personnel, and longitudinal
and demographic data, the paper thickly describes the aftermath of free
primary education in this urban poor context, and the reasons behind the
local popularity of cost-incurring, “informal” schools in the slums of Nairobi
among a low-income population, despite the introduction of free primary
education. Slum-based “informal” primary schools emerge as an underexplored
site of creativity in which parents, teachers, and administrators
attempt to bridge implementation gaps between educational policy and local
realities among the urban poor in Nairobi, Kenya. The paper employs an
emic perspective for understanding the dynamics of formal school enrolment
among the urban poor, and for exploring informal schools as a potential space
of empowerment for slum residents.