Is education compatible with pastoralism?

Education authorities have long taken the view that if pastoralists want their children to be educated they must change their lifestyle. However, in Kenya and elsewhere, this is a price most have not been prepared to pay. If pastoralists’ right to education is to be fully realised education systems will have to become more flexible.

Research from Oxfam GB points out that inequality in providing education between the pastoral areas of Kenya and the rest of the country is the biggest obstacle towards achieving Education For All (EFA) and education that is equal for boys and girls.

In Kenya, as in other nations with substantial pastoral populations, the relationship between settlements and the provision of education has been controversial. Policymakers have encouraged settlement by providing services such as education, water supplies and health centres.

In recent decades the massive expansion in Kenya’s primary education provision has left behind the north-east province where more than 70 percent of the population continues to live on, and move across, the rangelands. There is only a limited acceptance of the idea that girls have an equal right to education. Only one in five girls is in school.

While the state has carried on with the failed policy of building more schools in settlements, community groups and non governmental organisations (NGOs) have started programmes which acknowledge that education for all is more likely to be achieved if boys and girls are not forced to choose between herding and schooling. Education provision needs to be consistent with the mobility and labour demands of a herding lifestyle.

Oxfam challenges the common belief that pastoralism is an obstacle to achieving EFA. The author shows that:

• Recent growth in the urban and school population in north-east province is primarily driven by poverty and the absence of alternative options.
• There is deep gender bias in pastoralist societies that means girls are not seen to have the same right to education as boys.
• Education authorities blame cultural traditions for high rates of girls not attending schools but do little to introduce specific policies or new initiatives to get more girls into school.
• It is simplistic to assume that families can be divided into those who want to send their children to school and those who do not.
• Pastoralists are adapting and taking up education to diversify the household economy, and some are prepared to send children to towns to enable them to attend school.

Kenyan educational planners are increasingly aware that they need to address inequalities between girls and boys, but will not succeed without specific policies to meet the needs of pastoralist girls. They need to realise that:

• The education system needs to become more flexible. Education reform, including non-formal and formal provision will be needed if education for all is to be achieved in pastoral societies.
• The reluctance of pastoralists to send their children to school is based on sound reasoning and practical problems, rather than prejudice.
• Education is not irrelevant to pastoralists: they recognise education as a way of investing in options for income.
• There will not be gender equality unless public policy develops effective ways to challenge existing prevailing attitudes.
• A dedicated unit within the education ministry is needed to focus efforts on raising the enrolment levels of pastoralist children, especially girls.

 

Source(s):
‘Learning to improve education policy for pastoralists in Kenya’ by Ian Leggett, chapter six, ‘Beyond access: transforming policy and practice for gender equality in education’, Oxfam GB, edited by Sheila Aikman and Elaine Unterhalter, pp128-148, 2005 Full document.
‘Beyond access: transforming policy and practice for gender equality in education’, Oxfam GB, edited by Sheila Aikman and Elaine Unterhalter, 2005 Full document.

Funded by: UK Department for International Development (DFID)

id21 Research Highlight: 16 November 2005

Further Information:
Ian Leggett
People & Planet
51 Union Street
Oxford OX4 1J, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1865 245678
Fax: +44 (0)1865 791927
Contact the contributor: ian.leggett@peopleandplanet.org

People & Planet

Sheila Aikman
Oxfam GB
Oxfam House
John Smith Drive
Cowley, Oxford OX4 2JY, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1865 472173
Fax: +44 (0)1865 472993
Contact the contributor: saikman@oxfam.org.uk

Oxfam GB

Other related links:
'Moving in the right direction? New approaches to nomadic education in Ghana'

'Herd instinct? A better deal for African pastoralists'

'Moving in the right circles? Healthcare access for nomadic women'

'Education provision to nomadic pastoralists: a literature review'

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