Date Posted: 1/5/2014 2:52:57 PM
Posted By: Wishstar Membership Level: Gold Total Points: 7507
Factors that may result to educational inequalities in Kenya are:a. Socioeconomic factors A wide gap exists between the rich and poor, and this is also seen between members of the same society. This wide gap is an obvious cause of educational inequalities. The reason for this is that inspire of a country's desire to give all its citizens equal opportunity in education, not all societies do insist on a similar social and economic equality. Wealthy members of the society can buy, so to say, expensive and better education for their children. Such advantages of educational opportunity are not related to individual wealth only! An area with more resources will tend to have more social amenities such as schools and hospitals than an area of limited economic resources. Thus a child born in the central highlands of Kenya might have a better educational opportunity than his counterpart in the drier areas of north east Kenya. The gap between the rich and poor in all societies is a significant factor which contributes to inequality of access to the school of one's choice. b. Cultural factor Culture, in the way it influences and shapes the motives, desires and characters of both the individual and a particular society, can contribute immensely to inequality of educational opportunities. In every nation of the world, there are communities which do not value formal education. Such communities will reluctantly allow their children to attend school up to the level required by the law. In Kenya, for example, transhumance societies such as the Maasai, the Somali and the Turkana have lagged behind educationally. c. Religious beliefs Religious beliefs can be at variance with formal educational requirements. In the predominantly Muslim areas of Kenya such as the coast, formal education lagged behind because of religion. Formal education in Kenya was introduced by Christian missionaries and access to it first depended on conversion to the new faith. This created resistance to formal education among the Islamic community. d. The disability factor Plight of the disabled in developing countries is just beginning to receive attention and to be recognized as an integral part of the public educational system. Positive measures are being taken in many developing countries to provide educational opportunities to the disabled children at public expense. However, it will take a relatively long time before every developing country can identify majority of its disabled children and classify them according to the nature of their disabilities and establish relevant educational opportunities. Equal education opportunities for the disabled has some difficulty in understanding exactly what is entailed. A group of people advocate that disabled children of any description should be placed in special schools where their physical, social and intellectual needs can be met adequately. Others argue that the idea of placing the disabled in special schools is a way of segregating them and that this method does not reflect the real life situations which eventually these children will lead in society. These group therefore argues for total integration of the disabled with normal students, but taught by specially trained teachers. The current thinking however sorts of merges the two and advocates that the disabled children should be integrated with normal children whenever their respective disabilities permit. e. The gender factor Educational opportunities for girls have tended to be lower at every level of education when compared to those of boys in Kenya, partly because of the traditional beliefs which limited the woman's role in society to the home. Even in this modern times, there are certain areas in every African country where school enrollments for girls are significantly lower than those of boys. Many reasons have been advanced in an attempt to explain the problem. There are, for instance, greater demands made on girls by their families in connection with household duties. Such duties, especially in rural areas, which may not be demanded of boys, can lead to dropping out of school altogether. There are also certain communities where prearranged early marriages are still practiced and have had an influence on the dropout rate among school girls.
Next: How to organize mealtime with familyPrevious: What to avoid in 2014 in order to achieve your goals and objectives
Get premium membership