Let our Girls Succeed (Wasichana Wetu Wafaulu)

The Let Our Girls Succeed project supported 88,164 girls and was implemented by Education Development Trust (EDT) in Kenya.

The project worked with highly marginalised girls living in arid and semi-arid lands and slum areas in Kenya. The majority of these girls face multiple layers of social and economic marginalisation, such as high levels of poverty, poor health, low household income, and limited access to amenities. Access to schools is often difficult due to distance. Many barriers to girls’ education are entrenched in cultural practices linked to sex and gender, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), early marriage and teen pregnancy, and girls being expected to shoulder the bulk of household chores. The schools have untrained teachers, poor facilities and high rates of absenteeism, leading to poor learning outcomes, high dropout rates, and low transition rates.

The project worked to address these complex and interrelated barriers, working across 521 primary schools, 90 secondary schools, and 23 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions. It provided girls with the qualifications, skills and confidence necessary to successfully transition to the next level of education. Other girls were also supported to transition to alternative pathways focused on employment and TVET.

Main activities

• Providing engaging catch-up classes for girls who have dropped out of school.
• Establishing Girls’ Clubs in primary and secondary schools which included peer mentoring and sexual and reproductive health training.
• Providing teacher coaching and training in 521 primary and 45 secondary schools with a focus on enhanced ICT competencies and gender-sensitive and inclusive approaches.
• Promoting income generating activities by awarding grants to older girls and running community groups to support women.
• Providing needs-based financial support to assist with school costs or TVET fees.
• Working closely with the Government and Ministries and the Teacher Service Commission (TSC) to build capacities on overall supervisory oversight and monitoring classroom learning by focusing on gender-responsive pedagogies.

The project in numbers

Lessons learned

Economic barriers are the biggest challenge to transitioning to the next level of education, as many families could not afford to pay for school fees. This highlights the importance that the project scholarships and cash transfers played in keeping girls in school and strengthening transition.

When supporting girls to transition from primary to learning, there should be a focus on providing learning support at the secondary level. Providing catch-up centres at the secondary level helped girls transition. A strong focus on remediation, along with strengthened teacher capacity on use of formative assessment to identify learners with low competencies, made catchup centres in primary schools very successful.

Gathering frequent feedback from girls, parents and community members allows a project to respond quicker to needs. This worked particularly well during COVID-19 pandemic, where the needs of girls were rapidly changing. The project sought beneficiary feedback through monthly and quarterly monitoring visits. The project also involved community volunteers and champions in the feedback processes and used technology such as WhatsApp and hotline numbers for emergency cases.

It is important to align with and use existing government structures. The project was designed to be aligned to government sector plans and priorities and to link to existing structures and actors. An example was the use of government community health volunteers who supported home learning and learner welfare during COVID-19.

Education Development Trust: https://www.educationdevelopmenttrust.com/