Community and parental support of children’s education in the urban slums of Nairobi: Does gender of child matter?

• In Event: Global Perspectives on Education in Urban Spaces

Proposal

Community and parental perception on their roles with the education in the urban slums of Nairobi: Does it matter that is a boy or a girl? The objective of the paper is to examine the perceptions of community and parents on their roles with the education of their children, and highlight whether there are differences by sex of the child. This paper is motivated by the need to identify from the perspective of community and parents on their roles on the education girls and boys, and whether the perception of these roles are somewhat dependent on the sex of the pupil. Data comes from a qualitative component of the baseline survey conducted in Korogocho and Viwandani, in Nairobi, Kenya. Data was collected in the months of April-May 2016 using in-depth Interviews (IDIs), key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs). Results showed that the community elders internalized their role as the face of government in their respective communities, and they explained the policies pertaining to education to the communities, and ensured their implementation on behalf of all children. The community leaders also saw their role to include engaging parents to understand the challenges that affect children in school; and to be actively engaged as participants in their children’s education. Female parents with boys in the program had a perspective that parental monitoring and the follow-ups of children was important, and this was more so in Korogocho, in order to establish whether they attended school, and completed work assigned by the teachers. In addition, effective communication and interaction with teachers was also reported as one of the ways to ensure that children are well educated. These interactions ensured that discipline is maintained in school and at home. This finding was very important to female parents with girls in the program. Overall, parents recognized the important role they had to play in their children’s education. This is a good entry point as the support will ensure success and sustainability of the intervention to improve educational outcomes for children, and in turn help them to navigate the challenging period that adolescence.

Authors

• Benta Abuya, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

• Patricia Kitsao-Wekulo, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

• Nelson Gichuhi Muhia, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)