Abstract:

Background:
In 2011, 776,000 candidates sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations. Of these 213,000 failed to obtain sufficient grades to be admitted into secondary school. Co-operation for Health and Education Society (CHEpS) is a charitable organization in Kenya run by volunteers who hold other full time jobs. It promotes education among the poor through sponsorship of university students. A condition for this sponsorship is community service. Six sponsored students set up a tuition centre in Nairobi’s Kawangware slums in April 2012. This paper describes the project and demonstrates a ripple effect in promotion of education through a simple intervention by a small charitable organization.

Methods:
A community centre was rented for Sunday morning tutorial classes in the Kawangware slums. Students of upper primary standard 8 class in the neighbouring schools joined the centre for special tuitions. All services were provided free of charge and the ‘teachers’ are provided minimal transport allowance amounting to about two USD per tuition day. The six university students agreed among themselves to take a favorite subject each. Initially there was an issue with science and maths subjects as most ‘teachers’ were in arts departments. Later, with involvement of new ‘teachers’ studying medicine and engineering, this was resolved. The national primary school curriculum was followed. Text books were bought and past examination papers used to practice intensively for the forthcoming examinations. Monthly assessments provide opportunity to look at strengths and weaknesses and to build the students’ capacity in those weak areas while maintaining the strengths through constant practice. The ‘teachers’ read widely to enable them to boost the text book content and add value to the tuition classes. Intense practice of course curriculum is through question and answer. Only 4-5 students are allocated per ‘teacher’, which is much better than the over 50 in their regular schools.

Results:
The tuition centre was set up. Curriculum, text books and schedule was agreed upon. Classes were held every Sunday. One Sunday it was cancelled due to a community meeting at the venue. Student numbers increased from 8-15 over 3 months. Teachers’ regularity varied due to holiday travel and university exams. The students felt more confident and started performing better in school tests. Their confidence in the course materials increased. They looked forward to performing well in the examinations and getting admission into secondary school.

Conclusions:
A simple innovation can turn a university student sponsorship scheme into a ripple effect for promotion of education among the children of slum areas. Performance in the national primary school exams will determine whether the project was successful and the students get into secondary school. This may be very cost effective and beneficial in achieving the aim of encouraging children towards higher education and breaking the cycle of poverty. It is recommended that addition of a library can add value to the tuition classes and promote reading.

Keywords:

Education, promotion, innovation, ripple effect, slums, Kenya.