Examine the implication of millennium development goals of education and education for

all.

Millennium development goals are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the

millennium declaration that was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of governments

during the united nation’s summit in September 2010.

The eight MDGs break down to 21 quantifiable targets that are measured by 60 indicators.

Countries are supposed to look out and track the goals through appropriate indicators.

What are the goals?

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education

3. Promote gender equality and empower women

4. Reduce child mortality rates

5. Improve maternal mortality

6. Combat HIV/AIDs, malaria and other diseases

7. Ensure environmental sustainability

8. Develop a global partnership for development

Mdg 1: Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger

The government has formulated strategies to curb hunger by fulfilling the MDG goal of reducing

the population who suffer from hunger by 2015.low GDP in the last two decades has slowed

down and impact has been felt on the agricultural sector which is the main source of income for

most Kenyans. The factors that impacted negatively on agricultural growth included:
a. Mismanagement of farmer support institutions that affected the areas of marketing, credit,

seeds, and farm inputs.

b. Dumping of agricultural commodities, such as dairy, maize, and sugar in the local market.

c. Depreciation of the Kenya shilling resulted in large increases in the cost of imported

agricultural inputs.

d. Reduction in donor support reduced resources available for investment in agriculture.

e. Decline in budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector.

Mdg 2: Achieving universal primary education

The millennium development goal on education is to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere,

boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

The introduction of FPE in January 2003 has led to significant educational achievements.

Enrollments in public primary schools increased significantly from. Despite this performance,

primary education continues to experience a number of challenges, such as overstretched

facilities, overcrowding in schools high pupil-teacher ratios, high cost of equipment for children

with special needs, diminished support by communities, gender and regional disparities,

increased number of orphans in and out of school as a result of HIV/AIDs, poor management,

and internal inefficiency that negatively impacts on access, equity and quality.

Mdg 3: Gender equality & empowerment of women

The millennium development declaration commits member countries to promote gender equality

and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to

stimulate development that is truly sustainable.

Gross gender inequalities persist due to prevailing discriminatory practices, leading to inequality
in opportunities, wage/employment, ownership of property, and access to education and training.

Overall, women continue to have less access to social services and productive resources than

men.

Mdg 4: Reducing child mortality

This goal aims at reducing mortality rates of infant children, however this has been dealt a blow

as there is inequity in access to health care services while the cost of accessing health care is high

especially for the poor. The opportunity is that the ministry of health is endeavoring to strengthen

programmes that are currently supporting child health. These includes; immunization, control of

diarrhea diseases and acute respiratory infections, nutrition HIV/AIDs, and malaria.

Effective low cost interventions available can prevent at least 2/3 of child deaths.

Some of these interventions are preventive such as breastfeeding, use of insecticide treated

materials, complementary feeding, zinc and vitamin a supplementation, improved delivery

procedures, and immunization.

Mdg 5. Maternal health is the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the

postpartum period. It encompasses the health caredimensions of family

planning, preconception, prenatal, and postnatal care in order to ensure a positive and fulfilling

experience in most cases and reduce maternal morbidity and mortality in other cases.

Mdg 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases The number of people newly

infected with HIV continues to decline in many regions of the world.

Access to antiretroviral therapy has increased at a remarkable pace, averting millions of

deaths. Unfortunately knowledge of HIV and HIV prevention remains low among young

people.
Similarly, increased global attention to the devastating effects of malaria has produced

significant results, and the burden of tuberculosis has declined, thanks to effective

prevention, diagnosis and treatment

Mdg 7. Ensure environmental sustainability

Deforestation has slowed, but global greenhouse gas emissions continue their upward

trend.

In recent years, the net loss of forest area has slowed, due to both a slight decrease in

deforestation and an increase in afforestation. Deforestation, forest degradation and poor

forest management release carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.

A continual rise in greenhouse gas emissions is projected to further warm the planet and

cause long-lasting changes in the climate system, threatening severe and irreversible

consequences for people and ecosystems.

Mdg 8.A global partnership for development Official development assistance to least

developed countries increased significantly over the MDG period.

Official development assistance has plateaued in recent years, after increasing

significantly in the first decade of the new millennium. Imports from developing

countries, especially from least developed countries, increasingly receive prefere ntial

treatment from developed countries.

Education for all

Education for All (EFA) is an international initiative first launched in 1990 to bring the benefits

of education to “every citizen in every society.” To realize this aim, a broad coalition of national

governments, civil society groups, and development agencies such as UNESCO and the World

Bank Group committed to achieving six specific education goals:

1. Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for

the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

2. Ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, those in difficult circumstances, and

those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free, and compulsory

primary education of good quality.

3. Ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable

access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.

4. Achieve a 50% improvement in adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and

equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.

5. Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieve

gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal access

to and achievement in basic education of good quality.

6. Improve all aspects of the quality of education and ensure the excellence of all so that

recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy,

numeracy and essential life skills.

Why is EFA important?

Although there has been steady progress towards achieving many EFA goals, many challenges

remain:

 Today, an estimated 250 million children around the world are unable to read and write,

even after spending three or more years in school.

 In 2012, 58 million children were out of school; half of these children lived in conflict-

affected countries.

 In sub-Saharan Africa, girls accounted for 56% of out-of-school children in 2012.

 In 2011, only 60% of countries had achieved gender parity in enrollment at the primary

level and 38% at the secondary level.

 In around one-third of countries, fewer than 75% of primary school teachers are trained

according to national standards.

 In 2011, around half of young children had access to pre-primary education, and in sub-

Saharan Africa the share was only 18%.

Achieving the Education for All goals is critical for attaining all eight MDGs—in part due to the

direct impact of education on child and reproductive health, as well as the fact that EFA has

created a body of experience in multi-partner collaboration toward the 2015 targets.

Simultaneously, achieving the other MDGs, such as improved health, access to clean drinking

water, decreased poverty, and environmental sustainability, are critical to achieving the

education MDGs.
What is the World Bank doing to achieve EFA?

The Bank supports EFA through multidimensional efforts to:

 Improve educational quality and learning outcomes

 Improve primary school access and equity

 Improve the dropout and retention rates of girls, as well as their learning outcomes

 Promote early childhood development

Protect EFA prospects in fragile statesThe Bank helps countries achieve their education goals

through finance and knowledge services in the forms of analytic work, policy advice, and

technical assistance.

Policy work is a key component of the Bank’s work to realize EFA. The Bank’s Systems

Approach for Better Education Results Initiative (SABER), for example, collects and analyzes

policy data on education systems around the world, using evidence-based frameworks to

highlight policies and institutions that matter most to promote learning for all children.

The World Bank Group also supports the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), as a Board

Member, host of the GPE Secretariat, trustee and supervising entity for the vast majority of GPE

grants.

Finally, the World Bank also supports EFA efforts through analytic work and sharing of global

knowledge and good practice. The Bank’s analytic work has, for example, helped establish

benchmarks for quality, efficiency, and resource mobilization in the education sector.
Challenges facing education in Kenya

There are several challenges that have been as blocks for attainment of goals and objectives

of education in Kenya. Some of these challenges are natural, some financial in nature while

others are economically and socially induced. Political challenges also are a major reason why

these goals and objectives are still not achievable

Factors affecting education in Kenya

1. Nomadic way of life

Majority of the respondents (93 per cent) indicated that nomadic way of life was the main reason

behind the establishment mobile primary schools in Northern Region of Kenya. This is to cater

for the educational needs of the children of the pastoralist families which keep on moving to look

for pastures and water for their animals.

. Shortage of schools in marginalized areas

This is also another major problem facing education in Kenya. An overwhelming majority of the

teachers in the study (86 per cent) indicated that school distance influenced the establishment of

mobile schools in the area. This could be attributed to the fact that the area is vast and with very

few schools. Establishment of mobile schools closer to the community thus brings about

convenience and solves the problem of discontinuing from school due to movement while

looking for greener pastures.

3. Attitude towards education and ignorance

The study found out that ignorance of the community about the value of education accelerated

the need to establish mobile primary schools in North Eastern Province in Kenya. This

constituted 64 per cent of the views of the teachers who participated in the study. Many

pastoralist children are discouraged by their parents from attaining formal education and are

made to belief and grow in the culture role of herding their livestock. This ignorance particularly

affects the first born and the girls in the pastoralist community. The first born are believed to be

the flag bearer, culture and customary future leader to the family unit and thus taking them to

school means overstepping such crucial role in the family and the society at large. The girls

provide labour at home and are married off early.

4. Growing government financial deficits

The main economic related factor that led to the establishment of mobile school according to 63

per cent of teachers was the high cost of education in terms of meeting the costs of teaching and

learning resources and uniforms. This is brought about by ever increasing financial resource

needing in the country thus affecting education in Kenya.

5. Traditional Practices

Some of our socio-cultural practices are a hindrance to development. In some communities, for

example, the education of the girl child is not a priority. It is assumed that they will be married

off and hence no need wasting resources on them. In others, especially the pastoralist cultures,

only the boys who cannot look after cattle are sent to school. Again, some pastoralists like the

Maasai, Samburu, Turkana and Pokots are nomads. They have no permanent homestead. Some
of the communities take their girl children from school to marry them to old men. A girl as

young as 13 years is married to an old man (mzee) of 60 years or more.

6. Poverty

Unemployment is on the increase and consequently poverty is rising. At present, 56% of

Kenyans live below the poverty line. They earn less than a dollar a day and can hardly afford

basic needs like food, health care, shelter and in some cases even water. Many people, especially

those living in the rural areas, spend most of their time looking for these necessities. This leaves

them with no time for other economic activities, hence sinking them deeper into poverty.

7. Natural Calamities

Kenya is also not spared by natural calamities. Our country is an agricultural country and most of

our economy stems from Agriculture. It should be noted however that small-scale farmers

control 80% of all agriculture. They practice and use traditional farming methods and totally

depend on rainfall and good weather. They are either not knowledgeable on modern farming

methods and cash crop farming, or cannot afford them. So it is always catastrophic when the

rains fail. There lacks also financial institutions to support the farmers and probably market their

farm produce for them. Currently, there are some areas in Kenya that have not received any

rainfall for many years. People in these areas depend on relief food from the government.

8. HIV/AIDS

Like most of the sub-Saharan countries Kenya is really feeling the effects of HIV/AIDS. Over 2

million people are infected and 200,000 have already died. Almost every family unit is affected.
A member has been lost or is infected. This has greatly destabilized or weakened the family unit

since those mostly infected are bread winners or the active members of their families.

Consequently, the number of orphans is on the increase. This further weakens the already weak

economic status. Anti-retro virals (ARVs) and health care systems are not readily available for

some. With drugs and care it is possible to prolong the lives of those infected in order to delay

orphan-hood and allow these people to provide for their people for longer.

9. Casualties

It is painfully worth noting that those mostly affected by all these compounded problems are the

children, especially the school going ones. When the families are displaced for whatever reason,

their school is interrupted. When the rains fail, they cannot go to school since they would not

learn when they are hungry. Others drop out of school to take care of their siblings when their

parent(s) die. When the family income drops, the school expense is the first to do away with.
Conclusion

MDGs emphasize the role of developed countries in aiding developing countries, as outlined in

Goal Eight, which sets objectives and targets for developed countries to achieve a "global

partnership for development" by supporting fair trade, debt relief, increasing aid, access to

affordable essential medicines and encouraging technology transfer. Thus developing nations

ostensibly became partners with developed nations in the struggle to reduce world poverty.The

reason why education is such an important pillar towards Kenya development pathway is

because a proper education remains the only way to break the cycle of underdevelopment and

poverty in the majority South Africans are still caught.A proper education has the potential to

increase the employability or income generating capacity of South Africa's majority poor

thereby enabling them to be employed or be entrepreneurs in their own right mitigating on the

high inequality levels in Kenya.

References

1.Dewey, John (1938). Experience & Education. New York, NY: Kappa Delta Pi.

Johnson, Laurence F.; Smith, Rachel S.; Smythe, J. Troy; Varon, Rachel K. (2009).

2.Learning: An Approach for Our Time Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium

3.Apple, Inc. (2008) Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow—Today Learning in the 21st Century.

Cupertino, California: Apple, Inc

4.Ferre, Celine (February 2009). "Age at First Child: Does Education Delay Fertility Timing?

The Case of Kenya" (PDF). Policy Research Working Paper (4833). World Bank.

5."Basic Education Curriculum Framework" (PDF). Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.

Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. Retrieved 18 October 2017.

6. "Vocational Education in Kenya". UNESCO-UNEVOC. November 2012. Retrieved 12

June 2014