Abstract:
The desire for any government that values the economic growth of its country is to provide education to its citizens. Kenya has made innumerable efforts towards this end since independence. However, several decades down the line, this is yet to be realised. The nomadic pastoralist community is one such a group that has remained out of school due to its palpetic lifestyle. Generally, formal education is appropriate for people leading a sedentary lifestyle, thereby making nomadic pastoralist community be persistently excluded from accessing formal education. Nevertheless, in efforts to promote access to education among communities that are mainly nomadic pastoralists, the Government of Kenya has established mobile schools in Turkana County. Several studies have been conducted on factors contributing to low participation of nomadic pastoralists in education, but very little research has been done on mobile schools. Using a mixed methods research design, various County Government documents and official documents found in schools were reviewed to obtain information concerning Mobile schools in the area of study. Purposive sampling was adopted for this study to identify schools and the population for study. Focused Group Discussions were also held for parents and the learners of the final grade in mobile schools. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics whereas thematic analysis approach was used for qualitative data. The findings were presented in verbatim and tables. This study found out that although mobile schools have promoted access to education among Turkana nomadic pastoralists, their level of participation in education is still significantly low. The study established that some of the conditions that enhance participation in education through mobile schools include: awareness and sensitization, community involvement and multi grade and multi shift approaches in education provision. Also importantly is adopting a multifaceted approach whereby there is both provision of education, food and security. This study recommends further research to establish ways of sustaining mobile schools in provision in provision of education among the nomadic pastoralists.
