Damiano Kulundu Mandab

Bio: Damiano Kulundu Mandab is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Primary education & Curriculum. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 93 citations.

The decline in primary school enrolment in Kenya

Abstract: Since independence in 1963 Kenya has invested substantial resources in the education sector. For almost twenty-five years these investments and other government policies led to impressive gains in educational access at all levels. However since the mid-to late 1980s there appears to have been an erosion in educational participation and a reversal of the gains achieved in previous decades. Motivated by this trend this paper uses temporal cross-section and pseudo-panel data to assess the plausibility of various factors that may be responsible for the decline in primary school educational enrolment. In particular we consider the role of school fees school inputs and curriculum school availability the expected benefits of education and the spread of HIV/AIDS. We also try to identify the most effective policy interventions that may be used to prevent further declines in primary school enrolment rates. (authors)

The Long Walk to School: International Education Goals in Historical Perspective

Abstract: Raising school enrollment, like economic development in general, takes a long time. This is partly because, as a mountain of empirical evidence now shows, economic conditions and slowly-changing parental education levels determine children's school enrollment to a greater degree than education policy interventions. A succession of international meetings has nevertheless adopted a litany of utopian international goals for universal school enrollment and gender parity in education based on the idea that a correct education policy backed by sufficient cash could achieve the goals in short order. The latest of these, the Millennium Development Goals, call for universal primary schooling and full gender parity by 2015. This work quantifies how long it has taken countries rich and poor to make the transition towards high enrollments and gender parity. There are three central lessons. First, there is a remarkable uniformity of experience in the rates of enrollment increases, a reality from which the various rounds of goals appear entirely detached. Second, many countries that have not raised enrollments fast enough to meet the goals have in fact raised enrollments extraordinarily rapidly by historical standards and deserve celebration rather than condemnation. The very few poor countries that have raised enrollment figures at the rates envisioned by the goals have done so in many cases by accepting dramatic declines in schooling quality, failing large numbers of students, or other practices that cast doubt on the sustainability or exportability of their techniques. Third, aid-supported education policies can help within limits, and their performance should be judged in the context of country-specific, historically-grounded goals. But a country's broader development strategy outside the classroom matters much more than education policy.

Child labour in African Artisanal Mining Communities: experiences from Northern Ghana

Abstract: The issue of child labour in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) economy is attracting significant attention worldwide. This article critically examines this ‘problem’ in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, where a lack of formal sector employment opportunities and/or the need to provide financial support to their impoverished families has led tens of thousands of children to take up work in this industry. The article begins by engaging with the main debates on child labour in an attempt to explain why young boys and girls elect to pursue arduous work in ASM camps across the region. The remainder of the article uses the Ghana experience to further articulate the challenges associated with eradicating child labour at ASM camps, drawing upon recent fieldwork undertaken in Talensi-Nabdam District, Upper East Region. Overall, the issue of child labour in African ASM communities has been diagnosed far too superficially, and until donor agencies and host governments fully come to grips with the underlying causes of the poverty responsible for its existence, it will continue to burgeon.

Universalising primary education in Kenya: the elusive goal

Abstract: Since Independence in 1963, Kenya has launched three Free Primary Education programmes: the first in 1974, the second in 1979 and the most recent in 2003. Using historical data, this paper first outlines each initiative in turn, and discusses why, in the case of the earlier initiatives, impressive initial gains in improved access proved difficult to sustain. Then in the final section, insights gained from a recent micro‐level case study of the impact of the third Free Primary Education programme in nine schools are used to explore three access‐related issues, and their implications for current and future policy.

Does Free Secondary Education Enable The Poor To Gain Access? A Study from Rural Kenya

Abstract: This monograph looks at free secondary education and the way it influences access to education for the poor in rural Kenya. Data collected after the introduction of free secondary education show that government schools continue to levy fees for lunch, school buildings and boarding equipment. Households are also expected to provide non-discretionary items such as school uniforms, sports uniforms, books, stationary etc. The study found that the costs of the first year preparation for day secondary school are about eight times the monthly income for employed parents, 12 to 17 times for self-employed parents and 19 to 20 times for peasant parents engaged in casual work. In the case of boarding schools, the costs of the first year preparation for boarding school are 15 times the monthly income for employed parents, 23 to 33 times for self-employed parents and 38 to 40 times for peasant parents engaged in casual work. The study found that poor households continue to face significant challenges in meeting the costs of ‘free secondary education’. Moreover, government bursaries for secondary education are awarded to children enrolled in boarding secondary school only; children whose households cannot raise the initial and ongoing costs required for even lowcost day secondary schools face substantial challenges in accessing secondary education. The paper concludes that government policies aiming to expand access to secondary education for the poor must strive to identify and target socially disadvantaged children who are in need of financial help to access secondary education. Full text: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a08b77e5274a27b2000b69/PTA21.pdf

Human Capital Externalities and Private Returns to Education in Kenya

Abstract: expansion in the number of public and private universities. Student enrolments in primary and secondary schools increased from 0.9 and 0.03 million in 1963 to 7.1 and 0.9 million in 2003, respectively. The number of primary and secondary schools also increased from 6,058 and 150 in 1963 to about 19,496 and 3,999 in 2003, respectively. The number of schools may, however, understate the extent of expansion in the education system since within the existing schools, expansion was in form of increased number of classes. At the primary level, the expansion was partly due to rapid increase in the population and also government commitment to fight ignorance, while at the secondary level, the increase was due to the large number of schools, built through self-help initiatives in response to the high demand for secondary education. 2 Given the large amounts of resources devoted to education by both government and parents, it is fitting to investigate whether the education system yields returns to individuals that justify the resources invested in schooling. Estimates of returns to education conventionally measure the benefits of education in the form of higher wages. Private rates of return to education include only private benefits and costs,