A renewed commitment to more and better education financing

By Hon. Dennitah Ghati MP - Member of Parliament for Persons with Disabilities in the National Assembly of Kenya

© Hon. Dennitah Ghati MP

In Kenya, we have prioritised investment in education and training as the catalyst for the achievement of our vision to become a newly industrialized nation by 2030. 

Millions of children who wouldn’t have otherwise gone to school have benefited from a free education over the past two decades. This has brought great benefits to our young population and in recent years, Kenya’s education system has been ranked as both the strongest in Africa and the highest for education outcomes.

Central to this success has been a commitment to meet and exceed the global benchmark of 20% of the national budget allocated to education. In 2019, Kenya spent almost a quarter of the entire national budget on education. Members of Parliament in Kenya have a proud history of supporting free education. This is seen through the money they allocate to the expansion of school infrastructure and the establishment of new schools in rural and informal areas. This is commitment. 

However, COVID puts this progress at risk

When schools reopened earlier this year in Kenya, after interrupting learning for more than 17 million children in a span of over 9 months, thousands of children- the majority of whom were girls - failed to return to school. Now that spelt even more doom for girls with disabilities. 

We are seeing a similar picture all over the world with the Malala Fund estimating 20 million more secondary school-aged girls could drop out of school due to child marriage or early pregnancy.

At the same time slow or negative growth, on top of the additional costs associated with the pandemic and falling remittances, household budgets and aid contributions, is squeezing government budgets for education across lower-income countries.

A renewed commitment to more and better education financing is needed

Despite the immense economic strain that COVID has placed on our economy, I am proud that President Uhuru Kenyatta has put education at the heart of our long term recovery and restated Kenya's commitment to more and better education financing. 

President Kenyatta, as co-host of the Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) Global Education Summit, has written to Heads of States in all GPE’s partner countries inviting them to endorse a Call to Action on Education Financing which he authored. The statement commits governments like Kenya which have spent more than 20% of their annual expenditure on education to protect this level of investment, and for those which spent less than 20% to progressively increase their funding over the next 5 years towards the global benchmark. 

Ministers of Education have also been invited by the GPE to share their commitments to national financing for education at the Summit in July, including setting out their plans for ensuring that resources allocated to education are spent equitably and efficiently.

Collective endorsement of the political statement by the Heads of Government or State of GPE partner countries, coupled with strong commitments by Ministers of Education at the Summit, could have a transformative impact in closing the annual financing gap for education which stands at almost US$200 billion.

Closing that gap will help put children’s leaning back on track and put the world on the road not just to recovery but to prosperity. Parliamentarians have a critical role to play in making this happen. The International Parliamentary Network for Education (IPNEd) is spearheading this campaign. 

Growing political leadership for education financing

Earlier this month, I was delighted to join with almost 100 fellow members of parliament from around the globe for a high-level roundtable convened by IPNEd in support of GPE’s financing campaign. 

MPs heard from a range of speakers including Australia’s former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who now chairs the Global Partnership for Education, and David Moina Sengeh, Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education of Sierra Leone, on the critical role we can play in encouraging our governments to make ambitious commitments on education financing. 

To support parliamentarians in making that case, IPNEd has produced a briefing which sets out what MPs can do to encourage their governments to endorse President Kenyatta's Call to Action and make a pledge at the Global Education Summit.

The briefing, which is also available in French and Spanish, is being widely shared across the Network and through civil society.

Hon. Dennitah Ghati participating in IPNEd’s high-level roundtable on education financing on 3 June, 2021.

GPE has a ripple effect on economies and communities

I was very encouraged by the breadth of support for GPE’s financing campaign by parliamentarians from both partner and donor countries, with a unanimous call for governments to prioritize, protect and grow financing for education.

My colleagues from donor countries spoke powerfully about the value they place on their country’s support to GPE and the actions they are taking to encourage their government to pledge ambitiously to the replenishment so that GPE meets its target of at least US$5 billion. 

With that level of funding, GPE would get 88 million more children into school and add US$164 billion to the economies of partner countries.

Since 2005, GPE has invested more than $230 million in Kenya helping us to achieve universal primary education and gender parity in enrollment. We are also working in partnership with GPE to improve learning. Since 2017, 60 million textbooks have been distributed to primary and secondary schools, more than 10 million directly supported by GPE.

A lens on equity

There is still more to be done. In Kenya, the most marginalized children, particularly learners with disabilities and children living in pastoral and nomadic communities, continue to face major barriers and remain out of education in substantially high numbers. 

As an MP representing Persons with Disabilities in the National Assembly, I have seen firsthand how the pandemic has widened inequalities for children with disabilities. What governments do now will be critical to ensuring that children with disabilities do not fall even further behind. 

The case could not be clearer: if you reach the hardest to reach children, you will reach all children along the way.

© Hon. Dennitah Ghati MP

A landmark opportunity to transform education

Next month’s Global Education Summit really is a once in a generation opportunity. We can be the generation of leaders who prioritized education and accelerated progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals or forever rue this missed opportunity when investment in education was needed more than ever.

My clarion call to my colleagues is: Do all that you can over the next fifty days to encourage your government to endorse President Kenyatta’s statement and make an ambitious pledge at the summit. 

Write letters to your Head of State and Ministers, table parliamentary questions and motions, work with colleagues from other parties and civil society, engage with young people. Leave no stone unturned and together we can deliver a brighter future for all.

Hon. Dennitah Ghati MP is a Member of Parliament representing Persons with Disabilities in the National Assembly of Kenya. She also serves as the African Champion for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to represent parliamentarians living with disabilities. Prior to entering parliament in 2013, Hon. Ghati was a journalist and also established many development projects, including the Education Center for the Advancement of Women which she founded.