Improving learning and outcomes and transition for nine years in the informal settlements of Viwandani Nairobi Kenya.

• In Event: Voice, Agency and Education

Proposal

Background
According to Kyobutungi et al. (2018), an estimated 71% of Nairobi people live in slum areas. According to research, just 48% of Kenyans who take the National KCPE examination proceed to secondary school, and even fewer finish this level (UNESCO, 2012). Likewise, Abuya et al. (2016) discovered that fewer than six out of ten kids who are eligible for secondary school fail to advance to the next level of education compared to 90% of their contemporaries in non-slum neighborhoods.

Methods
From 2013 to 2023 U-Tena has been contributing towards the improvement of learning outcomes and transition of secondary to university among the approximately 4500 pupils and students and approximately 2800 parents have been engaged in positive parenting through the following interventions.
Holiday homework support- this is done through the provision of academic tutoring on sciences and languages by University student volunteers during holidays.
Life skills and leadership mentorship- this is done through life skills learning sessions that are delivered through different approaches i.e classroom setups, team building sessions, essay competitions, debates, performing arts (drama, skits, plays…), etc. Exposure visit- this is a career boost visit where targeted students visit different institutions for them to have a feel of different careers in an actual work setting.
Mental Health Support- This is done through focus group discussions, and one-on-one counseling using the World Health Organization problem management plus technique.
Service learning support- all targeted learners are mentored to voluntarily plan for community service activity and implement it to learn about responsible citizenship. Some of the activities can be community clean up, visiting orphanages planting trees, support of vulnerable households with foodstuff etc.
Parental engagement- this is done through organizing parental learning forums and counseling. Parents will be invited at least once a month and be facilitated to learn from a counselor and from themselves on how to better parent their adolescents in the postmodern era.

Results
Through this initiative, cases of teen pregnancies, crime, and other cases related to school dropout were reduced, and the rate of retention and transition improved. 57.5% of the mentored students transited from high school to university, community partnership for education enhancement was strengthened, drug and substance abuse cases were greatly reduced.

Recommendations
Long-term intervention, clearly pedagogical intervention, surely yields desired results if the monitoring, evaluation, and learning is strong and well incorporated into the project.

Authors

• Nicholas Wambua, U-Tena Youth Organization

• Peter Mokaya, University of Pecs