Secondary Education In Kenya

Secondary education is the third level in Kenya's education system and caters for students aged between 14 and 17 years and runs for four years - Form One to Four.  Secondary education prepares students for university and tertiary education and vocational training. Enrollment at the secondary school level stood at 928,149 in 2005, consisting of 491,157 boys and 436,992 girls with 47,435 teachers.  The details of enrollment are contained in Table 4.  A characteristic feature of secondary education system is low access.  Slightly more than half of those who complete primary school transit to secondary education.

Among the interventions to enhance retention at secondary level is the provision of bursary funds to students from needy backgrounds.  Also the government has provided guidelines on fees to control schools from imposing heavy levies on parents.  Some of the issues on secondary education are: insufficient teaching and learning resources; teacher shortage, regional and gender disparities in terms of access and performance in national examination; and low transition to university and tertiary levels.