EDUCATION: A RIGHT OR A PRIVILEGE? THE KENYAN PERSPECTIVE

EDUCATION: A RIGHT OR A PRIVILEGE? THE KENYAN PERSPECTIVE
This study aims to facilitate debate about the State’s efforts in taking a rights-based approach in the education sector. The study reviewed the progress that has been made to legitimize and implement the right to education in Kenya. An underlying argument in this study is that the State has an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to education. Using a human rights based approach, the study found that the State had made progress in making education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable in Kenya. First, availability of education had been enhanced through fiscal interventions. Second, accessibility to education had been enhanced through legal commitments to international human rights instruments and entrenched in the constitution and various laws, sessional papers and policies. Third, acceptability of education had been enhanced through curriculum reforms. Fourth, adaptability had been enhanced through the private provision of education. Despite this progress, there remain gaps that need to be addressed if the right to education is to be realized. These include exclusion of marginalized children in schools, low transition from primary to secondary schools, violation of the right to education by employment and marriage laws, non-competence based curriculum and affirmative policies that disadvantage marginalized children from private schools.