DOHA: Educate A Child (EAC), a programme of Qatar’s Education Above All Foundation, along with Unicef, launched a project yesterday to accelerate access to education for children in the most remote areas of Kenya.
Operation Come-To-School seeks to reach out to 300,000 kids in Kenya by 2018. It is in line with Kenya’s Ministry of Education’s 2014-2018 National Education Sector Programme to accelerate access to education for the most marginalised children.
EAC has been a partner of Unicef since 2012. Kenya has nearly 1.5 million children aged 6-13 years, who are out of school due to poverty, child marriage and gender-related cultural practices.
The programme will focus on improving demand for education to increase school enrolment and attendance; enhancing school facilities, including construction of classrooms, solar lighting and sanitation facilities; strengthening in-school teaching and the learning process through a child-friendly school approach; providing mobile schools and alternative basic education so that nomadic children can access education, and strengthening the county’s education system.
“The agreement with Unicef Kenya represents an important additional milestone to our efforts to ensure every out-of-school child in the country is given the opportunity for a basic education,” said Dr Mary Joy Pigozzi, Director, EAC.
“The programme builds on our successful partnerships in Kenya with Girl Child Network and UNHCR, which have enrolled about 68,000 out-of-school children. As we continue to push for universal primary education, it is through the local expertise of our partners that we will make a difference for children and communities across Kenya.”
The programme will help children in the arid and semi-arid lands of Wajir, Garissa, West Pokot, Turkana, Kajiado and Marsabit, in informal urban settlements (Nairobi and Mombasa) and the coastal island of Lamu.
“Unicef is committed to supporting the government of Kenya to ensure that out-of- school children are not denied one of their most basic human rights — the right to education” said Pirkko Heinonen, Acting Interim Representative, Unicef in Kenya. The Peninsula
