Watoro Kamau
25 March 2008
Nairobi — Access to public secondary schools and universities by the poor has remained elusive despite government efforts to ensure equity in provision of education, a former university don has said.
Prof Ezra Maritim, a former Egerton University Vice-Chancellor, said the apparent stratification of secondary schools promotes inequality and inequity in access to higher education.
Prof Maritim said that despite tuition fee waiver in secondary schools, children from poor backgrounds had continued to be marginalised as some national schools charges are in excess of Sh60,000 annually.
Many children from poor families perform well in KCPE and are admitted to national schools but are locked out due to their inability to pay the high fees. The former vice-chancellor argued that while the government was committed in theory to equity in education in general, the achievement of that commitment at the university level remains elusive.
He said the categorisation of secondary schools into four classes; district, provincial, national and private has only helped in widening the gap and denying the poor access to higher education.
The don's sentiments are contained in a paper entitled: Who Goes to University in Kenya? A Preliminary Investigation of the Elusiveness of Equity in Higher Education.
Prof Maritim is currently teaching at the College of Human Sciences of the University of South Africa.
In the article given to the Nation, Prof Maritim argued that equality in provision of education has only been attained in primary schools.
"National schools are perceived as high-valued schools. These schools attract more financial resources from high chargeable tuition fees; private sector, alumni and political patronage," the don said.
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