Every year, around 67 million children worldwide, many of them girls, do not receive opportunities to complete secondary education. Access to free primary is part of the United Nation Universal Declaration of Human rights, Millennium goals 2 changed with providing all children to free primary education by 2015.
Education has a very big role to play in efforts at poverty alleviation in developing nations. In Kenya, about 500 adolescent girls give birth daily, while an estimated 70,000 are expelled from school annually after getting pregnant (Global Living, 2012). There is a very strong association between childbearing and education. Forty percent of women with no education will have had a child by the age of 20. For those with primary schooling, the figure drops to 30 percent and for those with a secondary education, it drops to 8 percent, that is, one-fifth of their uneducated peers (Muganda-Onyando et al, 2003). However, education level makes a great difference, with almost half (46 percent) of uneducated teenagers having begun having children before the age of 20 compared with only 10 percent of those with some secondary education and above. Teenage pregnancies are problematic for a number of reasons: children born to young mothers are predisposed to higher risks of illness and death; adolescent mothers are more likely to experience complications during pregnancy some of which can be fatal; and teenage pregnancies often deny young women the opportunity to pursue further education (Central Bureau of Statistics et al, 2004
CADIF idea is poised to introduce more education activities to the teenage mothers, and vulnerable youths with the goal that they will be able to enjoy schooling benefits for a lifetime. The proposed working relationship is to enroll teenage mother and youths s who are unwilling to join normal primary or secondary schools to access remedial catch-up classes that will enable them to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) or Kenya Secondary Certificate of Education to join college or University.
Program Objectives
- 70% of the Teenage Mothers and vulnerable youths identified will complete the remedial catch-up in either primary or secondary
- 60% of the Teenage mothers who complete the remedial catch-up classes will be able to join secondary schools or colleges.
The teenage mothers will have the same career counseling, mentorship and Reproductive health education. Education advocacy will be core to the program, we will have training for 4 education officers, and 19 head teachers on inclusiveness-sustainable education model in each District .30 school representatives and community resource persons in each District will be trained on advocacy on child rights and protection in order to promote inclusive and sustainable education. The proposed component will contribute to disparity reduction in access to and increase enrollment to secondary school enrolment especially for girls. Cadif will inherent the responsibility of bringing together all education stakeholder to solidly for achievement of MDG 2, 3 and Education For All goal in Kenya. Cadif and its partners shall intensify activities aimed at coalition building and networking among its education provider and partners
Education advocacy
We will facilitate mobilizing and sensitization of the target communities for and advocacy purposes. The focus will be to increase community involvement in advocacy and lobbying for improved access to quality basic education for the Most Vulnerable girls and boys. This, in turn, is expected to create ownership of the project at the community level. Alongside that we will be sensitize on rights and protection of children; identification, enrollment and engagement in recreation activities of the MVCs by the community.
