433,000 students quit school as Covid-19 disrupts learning

More than 400,000 students in primary and secondary schools dropped out between March 2020 and March 2021 due to the effects of Covid-19 pandemic that led to the closer of learning institutions for more than seven months.

Thousands also moved from private schools to public ones.

According to the Economic Survey 2021 released by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), enrolment in primary schools went down to 10 million pupils as at March down from 10.2 million in March 2020 due to the negative effects of the pandemic.

The survey shows that the number of secondary school students who did not resume learning when institutions reopened were 233,300.

The number of pupils and students who dropped out of school in both primary and secondary hit 433,300.

The report attributed the reduction in enrolment to school drop outs due to over-age, teenage pregnancies, early marriages and other socio-economic factors such as employment as a result of prolonged closure of learning institutions.

In March 2020, public primary schools had 8.53 million pupils, among them 4.36 million boys and the rest girls while private schools had 1.64 million pupils, among them 827,320 boys .

4.31 million boys

However, after resumption of schools, the survey shows that by March, public primary schools had 8.59 million pupils among them, 4.31 million boys while private primary schools had 1.46 million pupils among them 736,273 boys.

“The reduction in enrolment mainly affected upper primary Grades 5 to 8, with Grade 8 being the worst hit,” reads the report. The data shows that thousands of learners moved from private schools to public primary institutions. From the data, 195,510 learners moved to public primary schools while 14,276 to secondary.

Some 1,054 private schools failed to reopen, 23 of them secondary institutions. The survey also reveals that the number of primary schools that reopened after the Ministry of Education announced resumption of physical learning reduced.

Therefore, the number of primary schools dropped from 32,437, 23,246 of them public and 9,191 private in March 2020 to 31,552, 23,392 public as at March 2021.

In total, 146 new public primary schools were opened while 1,031 private primary schools were shut down.

The survey reports that the number of students in secondary schools decreased by 5.7 per cent.

“Total secondary enrolment decreased by 5.7 per cent from 3.5 million in March 2020 to 3.3 million in March 2021 when the schools fully reopened,” reads the report.

 3.33 million students

The number of secondary school students who did not resume learning when schools reopened were 233,300.

The number represents 6.6 per cent of the total enrolled in March 2020.

However, there was an increase in the number of secondary schools that reopened by 45 after the pandemic closure.

As at March 2020, there were 10,413 schools but that number had increased to 10,458 in March 2021.

The report shows that, last year, there were 9,112 public secondary schools with 3.33 million students among them 1.76 million boys while private secondary schools were 1,301 with 217,724 pupils among them 104,268 girls.

However, the number of public secondary schools increased to 9,180 as at March 2021 with an enrolment of 3.11 million students, among them 1.57 million boys.

Private secondary schools were the most affected as their number went down to 1,278 from 1,301 with 203,448 students, among them 109,839 girls by March 2021.

This means that 23 private secondary schools were shut due to the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic while public schools opened 68 new secondary schools. Thus, 14,276 students in private secondary schools transferred to public schools after the closer of their institutions.