No-fee plan floods Kenya schools

Anne Ng'ang'a has gone back to her ancestral home in central Kenya for a couple of days to regain her strength. The headmistress of the Olympic Primary School here was feeling overwhelmed by an inundation of new young learners since the new year began.

"These are - how shall I put it - chaotic times," whispers Ms. Ng'ang'a's hoarse deputy, Ruth Namulumou.

When classes resumed at the beginning of the month, teachers, parents, and students were all coming to grips with a hastily implemented campaign promise by new President Mwai Kibaki: the elimination of fees at the country's 17,000 public schools.

As word of the policy spread throughout Kenya's towns, villages, and slums, kids seemed to come out of the woodwork. Some had never been in a classroom before; others had been whiling away their time in cheap, unlicensed alternatives to the government schools.

This is Kenya's latest attempt at free primary education and by its own admission is doing so without a road map. In the past, the plans have failed because of lack of funds. But the government says that if it can clean up the corruption that plagued the country during 27 years under former President Daniel arap Moi, it should have enough money to make it work this time around.

Some 3,400 new students showed up at Olympic for the first day of classes - this in addition to the 1,720 that were already there. Countrywide, there were over a half-million new students seeking enrollment, according to the Ministry of Education.

But accommodating all these new students is proving no easy task. At Olympic, for example, irate parents who were turned away by the headmistress "called her names, tried to beat her up, and threatened to burn down her office," recalls Ms. Namulunou with a shudder.

"My daughter deserves the best," says George Odhiambo, an unemployed father who was ready to light the fire. "I always knew this. Only before I could not afford to do anything about it."

In Africa, almost half the primary-school-aged children, or some 42 million (most of them girls), do not attend school. And only half of those who are enrolled are expected to complete the full primary cycle of studies, according to a report released last month by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Kenya, where more than 70 percent of children attend some form of primary school, is better off than most. In some two dozen African countries, says UNESCO, less than 20 percent of the school-age population goes to class.

Mr. Kibaki is not the first Kenyan president to try providing free education. Jomo Kenyatta and Mr. Moi, Kenya's previous two presidents, both abolished fees for a period. But on each occasion, the fees were soon reintroduced when the full cost of the experiment became apparent.

Initial estimates last week by a special treasury and education ministry committee show that at least $162 million will be required to carry out the policy change, including the hiring of 50,000 more teachers. Even before the new policy was proposed, Kenya had a shortage of 20,000 teachers in primary schools alone.

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