http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Project+ta ... /aqj3wh/-/
By SAMUEL SIRINGI [email protected]
Posted Wednesday, March 30 2011 at 21:43
Needy pupils at 800 non-formal schools will benefit from a four-year multi-million shilling project to boost the quality of learning.
The scheme, part of an Sh800 million project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) and the Aga Khan Foundation, will be launched on Friday.
More than 200,000 pupils in slum areas in Nairobi, Mombasa and other areas will benefit annually.
USAid mission director Erna Kerst and Education permanent secretary James ole Kiyapi are expected to launch the project that runs until 2014.
The scheme is part of the Education for Marginalised Children (Emack) programme that began in 2004 to increase access to education in schools in Coast, North Eastern and Nairobi.
So far, more than 500,000 children from 935 schools have benefited annually. About 10,000 school management committee members and 31,020 parents in 517 schools have undergone management training.
The Emack project, which focuses on 767 schools, directly reaches an estimated 4,602 teachers and benefits approximately 276,340 students.
Indirectly, it will reach about 12,340 teachers and 400,000 students in Coast, North Eastern and Nairobi.
The project’s launch comes less than a month after the United Kingdom started disbursing its education funding assistance to schools outside official Education ministry channels.
This month it was expected to buy textbooks worth Sh600 million for primary schools.
It would be the first time the UK will be accessing school children directly since it withdrew funding to the ministry’s free learning programme a year ago.
The action was taken following allegations of corruption in which Sh103 million was lost.
The textbook project will benefit 250,000 pupils from 1,200 low-cost private schools.