Schooling without Learning: Long-Term Implications of Free Primary Education for Income and Welfare Inequalities in Kenya

Abstract

The MDG2 makes basic education a human right and a valuable input to the development of human resource capacity of the individual and the nation. But, the extent to which acquisition of basic education translates to human resource capacity of all individuals demands further interrogation. Answers to questions about when and how education is valuable; what quality of education is valuable; and whether all children access the correct education are needed in order to understand the valuable contribution of the MDG2 to human development and the long-term implications of equity in society. This chapter shows that in Kenya free primary education (FPE) is creating two parallel societies enclosed in two hard-to-break circles: a small virtuous circle of prosperity for the children of the non-poor and a large vicious circle of poverty for the children of the poor. Using models of social sorting and social capital to analyse FPE in the country, the study concludes that FPE as currently implemented disadvantages children of the poor. Through social sorting in schools and the marriage market, it deepens income and welfare inequalities in the long-term.