COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Kenyan Education Sector: Learner Challenges and Mitigations

Dr. Areba George Ngwacho
Kisii University, Kenya
Email: narebag@gmail.com

Received March 29, 2020; Reviewed June 24; Accepted June 25, 2020

Abstract: Globally, and Kenya in particular, economic growth has been and will be negatively impacted by COVID-19 shocks with direct consequences to the poor, vulnerable and marginalized households who rely on informal employment and businesses to fend for their children. Their ability to finance school related expenditure such as school kits, meals, learning
materials has been severely compromised with the pandemic. With the Government adopting remote teaching to support distance learning and online education delivered through radio and television and internet, learners from poor, vulnerable and marginalized household have no access to these mediums of learning further worsening inequality in access and quality of education. There is need to navigate through these challenges to ensure continued access to provision of quality, equitable and inclusive education during and after the pandemic. Effective implementation of the proposed interventions by education managers and stakeholders will ensure uninterrupted learning in educational institutions in future .These will be the gist to be tackled in this reflective paper. This being a theoretical review, it relies on review of secondary data material to discuss the challenges and mitigations for COVID-19 in the Kenyan education sector, with specific reference to learners. Classical Liberal Theory of Equal Opportunities advocated by Sherman and Wood and the theory of justice and fairness advanced by Rawls John guided this theoretical review.