GRASSROOTS FIX

WITO Talent Centre has marked a significant milestone in community-based education after successfully hosting its first-ever end-year celebration aimed at empowering children through learning, play, and talent discovery. The event was held on 26th December 2025 at Olomismis Location in Narok County, bringing together over 50 children, volunteers, parents, and community members. Unlike conventional end-year festivities, the celebration was intentionally structured around Kenya’s Competency-Based Education (CBE) framework. Children from all grades participated in activities designed to strengthen problem-solving, creativity, innovation, numeracy, and life skills, demonstrating how learning can continue beyond the classroom, even during school holidays. Through games, group challenges, creative expression and guided interactions, the children learned by doing. They collaborated in teams, solved simple problems, expressed ideas confidently and explored their individ...

For many Maasai girls, the journey through education is fragile, promising at first, but often cut short just as their dreams begin to take shape. Despite increased advocacy for the girl child and growing access to sponsorships, deeply rooted cultural practices continue to force girls out of school, particularly during their teenage years. In several Maasai communities, form two marks a dangerous turning point. It is the stage where girls are considered “grown,” and cultural expectations begin to outweigh academic ambition. Early marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), and teenage pregnancy converge to quietly erase girls from classrooms, replacing books with bridal preparations. Even sponsorship does not guarantee protection. Many girls drop out of school despite having sponsors committed to supporting them through secondary school and into college. The decision is rarely academic. Instead, it is cultural, shaped by family pressure, community norms and long-held beliefs...

As schools prepare to reopen in a few weeks’ time, hundreds of school-going children in Trans Mara South are grappling with fear, displacement and emotional distress following renewed clashes in the area. Instead of preparing uniforms, books, and school fees, many families are fleeing violence, sleeping in makeshift shelters and struggling to meet basic needs. The ongoing insecurity has disrupted the psychological and emotional stability of learners, raising serious concerns about their readiness to return to class. Children who have witnessed violence, lost homes and been forced to flee are likely to return to school carrying trauma that affects their concentration, memory and overall academic performance. The situation is particularly worrying for candidates who recently sat the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) and are expected to transition to Grade 10 under the Competency-Based Education system. For these learners, the uncertainty caused by displaceme...

The Ministry of Education has announced that Grade 10 placements for candidates who sat the Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) will be released on Friday, December 19, 2025. Basic Education Principal Secretary Prof. Julius Bitok said the school selection process is progressing well, noting that learners who wish to revise their school or pathway choices will be allowed to do so beginning Tuesday, December 23. Speaking at the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) annual delegates’ conference, Prof. Bitok confirmed that senior schools are fully prepared to receive the first cohort under the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system in January 2026. He added that by December 20, learners and parents will have clarity on the senior schools and pathways students will join when the new academic year begins on January 12, 2026. To access placement details, Prof. Bitok said learners will be required to send their assessment number to 2263, after which they will rec...

 New findings from the USAWA Agenda reveal a systematic failure in Kenya’s pursuit of inclusive education, with children with disabilities facing the highest dropout rates, the lowest levels of enrollment, and some of the most persistent barriers to learning. According to the report, two in every ten children with disabilities are currently out of school, while 15 out of every 100 have dropped out altogether. Even more worrying, five out of every 100 children with disabilities never enroll in school at all, highlighting deep inequalities hidden within the country’s education system. The data further shows that children with autism and mental health challenges face the steepest uphill battle. Learners with autism are more likely to drop out than any other group, while children with mental health conditions are the most likely to never enroll at all. Girls with mental health challenges face even higher dropout rates than boys, exposing a gendered dimension of vulnerabilit...

Children file out of densely packed homes, navigating narrow paths and open drains on their way to class. They walk with purpose, but not toward the government schools that were meant to open doors for them. According to an Oxfam study on education in Nairobi’s slums, the promise of Free Primary Education (FPE) has never been equal across the city. While public schools remain free in principle, the report found that access is deeply uneven. In the study area, nearly half the pupils attended low-cost private schools, not because families preferred them, but because public alternatives were full, far away,  and practically inaccessible. The report describes a stark reality: children in informal settlements often reach public school gates only to find the spaces already taken. Overcrowding and long queues have made these schools unattainable for many families living in poverty. The result is a quiet but powerful form of exclusion, one that pushes the poorest children towar...

Pupils at Nasira Nkujit Primary School received a hands-on lesson in environmental conservation this week when the Mara Basin Conservation Forum, working alongside partners from DSF, KENAWRUA, and Ecolink, visited the school to promote citizen science as a tool for climate action and environmental stewardship. The program is led jointly by Alfred Owino, chairman of the Mara Basin Conservation Forum; Dr. Jacqueline Goldin, CEO of DSF; Enock Kiminta, chairman of the Kenya National Water Resources Users Association (KENAWRUA); and Blaise Janichon, head of Ecolink. Together, the team conducted interactive sessions demonstrating how simple observations such as monitoring water clarity, recording rainfall and noting wildlife changes, can contribute meaningful data toward protecting the Mara River Basin. Owino emphasized that conservation begins at the community level. “Safeguarding the Mara Basin is a shared responsibility,” he said. “Young people can make valuable contributions...