Removing Obstacles to Primary Education in Kenya

Summary

Provide a Kenyan primary school student with a free school uniform. By encouraging school retention, free uniforms can indirectly reduce exposure to HIV and risk behaviors

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

In Kenya we provide free school uniforms to students in grades 6 and 8 in order to eliminate a mandatory cost of education and to encourage retention. Students who stay in school longer are more likely to be exposed to information about HIV prevention, spend less time engaging in risk behavior, and have greater incentive to avoid pregnancy and other threats to education. This project undertakes a rigorous evaluation of program impact on student retention, teen pregnancy, and risk behavior.

How will this project solve this problem?

By providing school uniforms, we eliminate a substantial and mandatory cost that otherwise deters some students from completing their education, and thus reduce some of the consequences associated with dropping out, e.g. HIV and teen pregnancy.

Potential Long Term Impact

Removing barriers to education encourages retention, reduces risk behavior and improves later employment opportunities. Preliminary results suggest that even this small investment reduces teen pregnancy rates.

Project Message

The children who had not been coming to school suddenly came to school. You could see the gratitude on their faces. It's something that you have done that really touches their lives.
- Susan Nduku King'oo, Project Field Officer

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).

Resources