“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
― Margaret Mead
Main Prayer Focus of the Week:
- That policies will be enacted that will lead to great improvements in the primary school completion rates and transition into secondary education
- That curriculum review will lead to the adoption of a curriculum that is relevant (in a study one reason boys gave for dropping out of school was boredom with studies)
OVERVIEW OF THE WEEK’S THEME
Primary school completion rates and transition to secondary level are important as they indicate the extent of the efficiency of the primary education system. Though there is an improvement, a large number of children are still not able to progress from primary to secondary. This bottleneck between primary and secondary education has negative effects on the rest of the education system. Only about four in ten primary students who begin primary one complete primary seven.
The low primary level completion rates and the very low progression to post-primary education imply that a large number of children leave school with limited ability to be productive in the labor market. It also represents a form of leakage of financial resources invested by government and parents to keep children for the few years in school. Initiatives like the 2007 Universal Secondary Education (USE) policy, which made it attractive to continue to secondary education by providing free lower- and upper- secondary education to students who score well on primary school exams, have been successful in increasing the net and gross secondary and tertiary enrollment rates. However, secondary enrollment levels are still relatively low. Both net and gross enrollment rates in secondary schools have more than doubled since 2000, but are still only at 26 and 33 percent, respectively. Comparatively, net enrollment rates in other East African Countries and low-income countries are currently at 37 and 35 percent, respectively.
INSTITUTIONS PRAYER FOCUS FOR WEEK FIVE
Pray for these institutions using the prayer guidelines in Chapter 1:
- Directorate of Basic & Secondary Education (BSE)
- Department of Guidance & Counseling (G&C)
- Department of Physical Education (PE)
MARKET PLACE FOCUS FOR WEEK FIVE
- Nehemiah refused to give in to fear: Nehemiah 4 vs 14
- Pray for the leaders that God is raising in your sector of the market place and for yourself that you will not be overcome by fear.
- Pray for a spirit of boldness; pray for new strength.
