There has been an increase in the number of children who are out of school since 2021, a report has revealed.
The Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (FLANA) Report 2023 was launched on Thursday at KICD, Nairobi.
The report showed that the percentage of school-aged children aged six to 15 years who are out of school increased from 7.5 per cent in 2021 to 8.5 per cent in 2023.
Seven counties with the largest percentage of out-of-school children are all in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) region with Mandera County leading.
Majority of the children out of school are from households whose heads have no formal education, the report shows.
The FLANA report was prepared by Usawa Agenda following visits to 1,953 villages across all counties.
A total of 38,634 household heads and 59,201 children were interviewed between June and July 2023.
Usawa Agenda also visited 1,813 public and private primary schools and engaged with learners to find out if they were truly learning.
Four in 10 children said they dropped out of school due to lack of school fees.
The stakeholders also noted that the school environment affected learners' willingness to show up.
Usawa Agenda Executive Director Emmanuel Manyasa added that some learners dropped out of school due to the fact that they have seen graduates stay unemployed.
He said it is a poor mindset to think education is all about employment.
Manyasa also mentioned that 13 in 100 children who dropped out of school did so out of their own desire not to continue with schooling.
Four in 100 children who dropped out of school did so because the school was too far, the report revealed.
It said five in 100 of those in rural areas dropped out because the school was far compared to three in 100 of those in the urban areas dropped out for the same reason.
This represents a drop out rate of 5.2 per cent in rural areas and 2.8 per cent in urban areas.
Manyasa added that three in 100 children dropped out of school simply because their parent or guardian did not want them to go to school.
This was represented by 3.3 per cent in rural areas and 3.4 per cent in urban areas.
Three out of 10 children who dropped out of school and never disclosed the reason, Manyasa said.
In rural areas, this lot accounted for 28.2 per cent of children interviewed and 36.1 per cent of those in the urban areas.
Meanwhile, the FLANA report revealed that 0.5 per cent of children in rural areas get married early.
The percentage shoots up to 2.4 in urban areas while overall, 1.2 per cent of children dropped out of school due to early marriages.
A total of 2.1 per cent nationally dropped out due to pregnancy, the report revealed.
It said the prevalence rate stood at 1.2 per cent in rural areas and 1.5 per cent in urban areas.
Usawa is now working to ensure all the issues identified in the report are dealt with immediately so as to reduce the number of school drop outs.