A Research On Gender Disparity In Primary Education Policy In The Pastor Alist Community In Kenya

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed in2000partly to address the situation of education for all, through achieving the following targets:·MDG2:achieve universal primary education, with the target of ensuring that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling by2015.·MDG3:promote gender equality and empower women, with the target of eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by2005, and in all levels of education by2015.Kenya was among the first African countries that has started the quest for Universal primary education; the major step included free primary education policy by the current NARC government in2002.It however has not meet the goal of eliminating gender disparity especially in the pastoralist community in primary school therefore succeeding in one hand by achieving Universal primary education but not with gender disparity in educationThis paper will assess and investigate the cause of low access, enrolment, retention, progression and overall achievement of girls in primary education in the pastoralist communities since the implementation of free primary education in2003.This has been seen that since the introduction and implementation of free primary education policy in Kenya the gross enrolment rate (GER)has increased by106percent but the effect has not been felt in the pastoralist community mostly in the ASAL(arid and semi arid land)regions. The girls are more disadvantaged because even if the region has a low gross enrolment rate the number of boys enrolment is double that of girls.The purpose of this study was to determine the gender disparity in primary education in the pastoralist communities in Kenya. The study was guided by research questions and objective of the study. The pupils were stratified by gender and200pupils were selected for the study10head teachers,20teachers,40parents and1district educational officer.