EI+and+KNUT+Statement+of+26+January+2016

//** Index **// ** EI and Kenya National Union of Teachers Statement of 26 January 2016 **


 * __Quotation from this file__: **

Article 53 of Kenya’s Constitution makes it clear that every child has the immediate right to free and compulsory basic education. However, a 2009 Policy for Alternative Provision of Basic Education and Training (APBET), which recognises alternative or ‘non formal’ schools, has inadvertently opened the door to big corporations and edu-businesses to benefit from lower legal requirements and to profit from the delivery of non-formal education in areas of the country that remain largely under-served by public schools. This legal loophole caught the attention of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, all of which have expressed concern over the growing privatisation of education and fee charging for-profit schools in Kenya, such as Bridge International Academies.

“A precondition to achieve quality education for all is a qualified teacher in every classroom,” said Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General, Wilson Sossion said in response to the situation. “It’s astonishing that Bridge opposes a minimum requirement that 50 percent of their staff be qualified teachers. Equally, it is disturbing that the World Bank is promoting and financing the Bridge model.”

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