This archive report was first published on 9 August 2019.
With the world marking Youth Week and International Youth Day, it's a stark reminder that we are already one-third of the way towards the deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, we are still far off track from many of them, including SDG 4 on education.
According to UNESCO, only six out of ten young people will be completing secondary education by 2030. This is a worrying trend, especially when considering the theme of International Youth Day 2019, which is making education more relevant, equitable and inclusive.
Africa has the highest number of out-of-school children, and four in ten of those in school are scoring poorly in literacy and numeracy. Despite considerable gains in enrolment rates, there are still big challenges related to equity in access and relevance of school curricula for the current and future job markets.
Kenya is still overwhelmingly rural, and the specific needs of this segment of the population need to be given prominence. One glaring weakness remains the opportunities for education between urban and rural families. Data indicates that in low-income countries, the richest are nine times as likely as the poorest to complete upper secondary.
In Kenya, the national government maintains the responsibility to education, but county governments need to consider what opportunities lie in mobilising resources and capacity to support the education of youth in rural areas, in line with the 'Leaving no one behind' principle.
County governments should consider greater engagements with the private sector, especially to enhance marketable vocational and technical education. This would provide a pathway to lifting rural youth out of poverty, by expanding opportunities for re-skilling and relevance for the market.
Exploiting digital learning driven by private sector players would make it possible to reach new and excluded learners and lower costs for rural families. With the continent's impressive mobile phone penetration, it is possible to reach girls who fall out of school either because they have children at a very young age or because of social norms that pressure them into early marriage.
Impact investing – using the tools of commercial capital deployment for social good – is a potential tool to support education access, equity, and quality. In the counties, it would mobilise new funding and promote innovation in teaching and learning methods.
The involvement of the private sector is crucial, especially in rebranding TVET and making career options more appealing and meaningful. At the moment, such institutions are largely run by government ministries and are associated with failed careers.
Transforming education with an eye on preparing the youth for tomorrow's competitive economies is the best way to deal with the fast-growing youth bulge. It is projected that in 15 years, the number of people joining the workforce will exceed that of the rest of the world combined.
