Kenyan school children have a higher chance of accessing education and completing schools compared to all her peers in the region including trouncing Africa’s two largest economies Nigeria and South Africa.
Kenyan school children have a higher chance of accessing education and completing schools compared to all her peers in the region including Africa’s two largest economies Nigeria and South Africa.
A Kenyan child is likely to have nearly 11 years of education under their belt by the time they turn 18, which is higher than the Sub-Saharan Africa average of 8.1 years and just short of the global average of 11.2 years, according to a new World Bank index measuring the productivity potential of the youth.
According to the report, children in Nigeria and South Africa are only likely to have received 9.3 years and 8.2 years of education by the time they attain 18 years of age.
The World Bank Human Capital Index released recently places Kenya in third place in Africa closely trailing Seychelles and Mauritius, based on parameters such as expected years of school and harmonised test scores.
“In Kenya, a child who starts school at age four can expect to complete 10.7 years of school by her 18th birthday, ” says the World Bank in the report.
The impressive score is courtesy to the free universal primary education programme which was introduced by former president Mwai Kibaki in 2003 which saw more than one million children join school where many of them had previously been locked out due to lack of fees.
In Sub-Saharan Africa and the world, on average, children are likely to receive 8.1 years and 11.2 years respectively.
In Africa, Kenya only comes behind Mauritius and Seychelles.
The survey also assessed the probability of a child’s survival to age five, adult survival rate and healthy growth which Kenya scored 0.52, against a Sub-Saharan Africa average of 0.41 against a maximum score of 1.0.
The probability of survival to five years for a Kenyan child stands at 0.95, slightly higher than the Africa average of 0.93.
In general Human Index, Kenya scored 0.52 trailing Seychelles at 0.68 and Mauritius at 0.63. This means that Kenyans are 52% productive as adults through their experience in Education and Health compared to getting a full state of education and health.
All East African countries scored below the average with Tanzania coming in at 0.4, Uganda and Rwanda tying at 0.38 and Burundi at 0.37.
