Kenya is no longer asking whether foundational learning matters. That question has already been answered.
Across government, counties, civil society, development partners, teachers, researchers, parents, and communities, there is now broad agreement that foundational literacy, numeracy, values, and life skills are the bedrock of every child’s future. Without these foundations, children may move through school without truly learning. With them, they gain the confidence and competence to participate meaningfully in education, work, citizenship, and life. The scale of the challenge is sobering: Usawa Agenda’s most recent Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (FLANA) found that half of Grade 6 learners cannot read and comprehend a Grade 3 English story.
The real question before Kenya today is different: how do we organize ourselves better as a sector so that our commitments translate into learning gains for every child? This piece draws lessons from Rwanda and Ghana and proposes six practical steps to move Kenya from dialogue to delivery.
Recent conversations in Kenya’s foundational learning space show that the country has the right urgency, the right actors, and the right direction. The Inaugural Foundational Learning Conference in Mombasa brought together national government, county governments, education agencies, development partners, civil society, teachers, researchers, and non-state actors around a shared concern: Kenya must move from access to learning, from fragmented efforts to system alignment, and from dialogue to measurable action.
For Mizizi Elimu Afrika, this shift sits at the heart of our Vision 2040 commitment to stronger education systems and stronger ecosystems for change: children learn when the systems around them work together.
But momentum alone will not deliver learning. Good intentions, strong conferences, and well-written commitments must be supported by clear coordination structures, regular accountability routines, and disciplined follow-through. This is where Kenya can draw useful lessons from Rwanda and Ghana.
Rwanda: The Power of Government-Led Coordination
Rwanda’s Education Sector Working Group offers an important example of government-led coordination. It brings together government, development partners, civil society, and education stakeholders around a common sector agenda.
One of its strongest features is high-level leadership. Coordination is not treated as a side activity or a donor-driven conversation. It is part of how the education sector is governed. Government leadership gives the platform authority, while partner participation strengthens ownership and technical contribution.
Rwanda also uses technical sub-sector working groups. This allows detailed discussion to happen before issues are escalated to the main sector platform. Instead of crowded meetings where many issues are raised but few are resolved, technical groups focus on specific areas such as basic education, data, teacher development, financing, or inclusion.
Most importantly, Rwanda has strong mutual accountability mechanisms. Its education sector reviews are used to assess progress, follow up on recommendations, identify bottlenecks, and agree on the next phase of implementation.
The lesson for Kenya is clear: coordination must be formal, regular, and led from the top. Goodwill is important, but it is not enough. Kenya needs structures that clarify who leads, who participates, what decisions are made, and how progress is tracked, documented, and acted upon.
Ghana: Inclusion, Evidence, and Partner Alignment
Ghana provides another important lesson: effective coordination must be inclusive. Its education coordination platforms bring together government actors, development partners, civil society organizations, teacher associations, and other education stakeholders.
This matters because education reform does not happen only in ministries. It happens in classrooms, schools, homes, communities, counties, and sub-counties. When teacher associations and civil society are included, the conversation becomes more grounded. Teachers bring the reality of classroom practice. Civil society brings community voice, equity concerns, and accountability. Development partners bring technical and financial support. Government brings policy direction, legitimacy, and stewardship.
Ghana’s experience also shows the value of using evidence to drive sector dialogue. Data is not collected simply for reporting. It is used to shape priorities, monitor equity, strengthen accountability, and guide implementation.
Ghana’s message to Kenya is just as direct: a strong foundational learning platform must include the voices closest to the learner. Teachers, counties, parents, civil society, school leaders, and communities should not be invited only as observers. They should have defined roles in planning, implementation, monitoring, and learning.
Where Kenya Is Already Aligned
Kenya is not starting from zero. In fact, the country is already strongly aligned with many of the lessons emerging from Rwanda and Ghana.
First, there is growing recognition that foundational learning is a national priority. The sector is beginning to shift from a focus on enrolment alone to a stronger focus on actual learning outcomes.
Second, Kenya has a wide range of actors already engaged. The Ministry of Education, Council of Governors, Teachers Service Commission, the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA), counties, development partners, civil society organizations, researchers, and non-state actors are all part of the conversation. This gives Kenya a rich ecosystem to build from.
Third, Kenya has identified the right technical priorities. These include teacher effectiveness, instructional quality, learner assessment, data use, accountability, inclusion, equity, and early childhood education.
Fourth, Kenya is increasingly emphasizing partner alignment. Non-state actors are being encouraged to support government-led priorities rather than create parallel initiatives. This is critical because fragmented projects, however well intended, cannot solve a system-wide learning challenge.
Where Kenya Still Needs to Improve
While Kenya is well aligned in vision and intention, the country is less aligned in implementation discipline.
The first gap is coordination. Kenya has many platforms, meetings, partners, and initiatives, but roles are not always clear. Coordination is often strong at the technical level but weaker at political and leadership levels. For foundational learning to improve, coordination must become more structured, predictable, and accountable.
The second gap is data use. Kenya does not lack education data. The challenge is that data is not consistently used to inform classroom instruction, county planning, resource allocation, and accountability. Data must move from reports into decisions.
The third gap is follow-through. Conferences and meetings produce strong commitments, but the sector needs stronger mechanisms for tracking what happens after the meeting ends. Kenya needs a regular foundational learning review process where progress is assessed, bottlenecks are discussed, and responsibilities are followed up.
The fourth gap is financing, especially for early childhood development education (ECDE). Foundational learning begins early, yet ECDE remains unevenly financed and implemented across counties. Without predictable financing, teacher support, learning materials, school feeding, infrastructure, and inclusion services will remain inconsistent.
The fifth gap is the formal inclusion of civil society, teachers, school leaders, parents, and communities. Kenya invites these actors into many conversations, but their role in accountability and implementation should be made more systematic.
Parental Engagement: The Missing Link in Foundational Learning
One of the most important areas Kenya must strengthen is parental engagement. Foundational learning does not begin and end in the classroom. It is shaped daily by what happens at home, in the community, and in the relationship between parents, teachers, and schools.
Kenya’s shift to the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) has expanded the role of parents and caregivers in children’s learning. Parents are now expected to support learning beyond homework, encourage curiosity, participate in school activities, observe children’s progress, and reinforce values and life skills at home. However, many parents have not been adequately oriented to this shift.
For many families, the education system they experienced was examination-driven, teacher-led, and school-contained. CBC requires a different mindset. It asks parents to see learning as a shared responsibility and to understand that everyday activities such as storytelling, reading labels, counting household items, discussing the weather, singing, drawing, or visiting a market can support literacy, numeracy, language development, confidence, and problem-solving.
This requires intentional re-orientation. Parents need simple, practical guidance on how to support foundational learning at home, even when they have limited time, resources, or formal education. Parental engagement should not be reduced to paying fees, attending meetings, or signing homework books. It should become a structured part of the learning ecosystem.
Schools can support this by establishing simple parent-learning routines. These may include reading with children for ten minutes a day, storytelling in local languages, checking attendance, supporting punctuality, encouraging children to talk about what they learned, and creating safe spaces for children to practice reading without fear.
Teachers can also use parenting differently. Instead of focusing mainly on discipline, fees, or examinations, schools can use these sessions to show parents what early reading and numeracy look like, how to identify learning gaps, and how to support children at home. Demonstrations can be more powerful than speech. A teacher showing parents how to read with a child, ask questions about a story, or practice counting with household items can shift mindsets more effectively than a long policy explanation.
Counties and national governments can also support parental engagement through public communication campaigns. Radio, community health volunteers, faith institutions, chiefs’ barazas, parent associations, and local leaders can help carry simple messages: talk to your child, read with your child, count with your child, send your child to school every day, and follow up on learning progress.
Parental engagement is also an equity issue. Children who are left furthest behind often need stronger links between home, school, and community. Parents of children living with vulnerabilities may need additional support to navigate learning needs, inclusion services, assistive devices, school feeding, safety, and attendance challenges. A strong foundational learning system must therefore treat parents not as passive beneficiaries, but as active partners.
If Kenya is serious about foundational learning, parental engagement must be planned, financed, communicated, monitored, and supported. It should sit within the national and county foundational learning agenda, not as an afterthought, but as a core pillar of delivery.
Strengthening National-County Coordination for ECDE
Another critical area is national-county coordination, especially in pre-primary education. ECDE is the foundation of foundational learning. Yet its delivery depends heavily on counties, while curriculum, assessment, teacher preparation, quality assurance, and national policy direction involve national institutions.
This shared responsibility requires stronger coordination. Counties need clear support on financing, teacher development, infrastructure, inclusion, learning materials, school feeding, data systems, and quality assurance. National institutions need structured ways of working with counties so that policy direction translates into classroom practice.
A child’s learning journey does not begin in Grade One. It begins much earlier. Therefore, Kenya’s foundational learning agenda must give ECDE the seriousness it deserves.
So, How Aligned Is Kenya?
In vision, Kenya speaks the same language as Rwanda and Ghana: government leadership, inclusion, evidence, coordination, accountability, parental engagement, and learning outcomes. However, Kenya is only moderately aligned in terms of operational systems. Rwanda and Ghana offer examples of more structured coordination, regular reviews, and clearer partner alignment. Kenya is still building these muscles.
A fair assessment is that Kenya is most of the way there in spirit and still building in structure. The alignment is strongest in stakeholder commitment and sector dialogue. It is weaker in formal structures, accountability routines, financing alignment, parental engagement systems, and disciplined follow-through.
What Kenya Should Do Next
Kenya now needs to move from conversation to architecture.
First, the country should establish a formal Foundational Learning Sector Working Group, linked to existing education coordination structures and led by government with strong county participation.
Second, the platform should have clear technical sub-groups. These could focus on teaching and learning, data and shared accountability, governance and financing, inclusion and equity, ECDE, and parental engagement.
Third, Kenya should introduce a biannual Foundational Learning Joint Review. This would allow the sector to assess progress, review data, follow up on commitments, and agree on corrective action.
Fourth, the sector should develop a simple foundational learning accountability dashboard. This should track a small number of indicators such as literacy, numeracy, attendance, teacher support, ECDE financing, inclusion, parental engagement, and county-level progress.
Fifth, Kenya should formalize the role of civil society, teacher associations, parents, and school leaders. Their participation should go beyond attendance. They should help interpret evidence, monitor progress, support community engagement, and hold the system accountable for children’s learning.
Finally, all partner support should be aligned to government priorities. Kenya does not need more isolated projects. It needs coordinated investment in what works, scaled through public systems.
The Moment Is Now
Kenya has reached an important moment in its foundational learning journey. The country has evidence. It has committed actors. It has policy frameworks. It has grown political attention to education. It has examples from other African countries that show what stronger coordination can look like.
The next step is not another conversation about whether foundational learning matters. The next step is to build the machinery that makes delivery possible.
Rwanda teaches us that high-level government leadership and routine accountability matter. Ghana teaches us that inclusion, evidence, and partner alignment strengthen sector dialogue. Kenya’s own experience teaches us that the learning challenge is urgent, but solvable.
The test for Kenya is no longer whether we can talk powerfully about foundational learning. We have done that. The real test is whether we can organize power, resources, evidence, leadership, and community action around one clear promise: that every child will learn early, learn well, and continue learning with confidence.
Foundational learning will not improve by goodwill alone. It will improve when dialogue becomes delivery, when coordination becomes accountability, and when every actor in the system understands their role in ensuring that no child is left to pass through school without learning.
Kenya has the opportunity, the experience, and the partnerships to make this possible. What is needed now is the discipline to move together.
Because in the end, foundational learning is not just an education agenda. It is a national promise to every child: that school will not merely be a place they attend, but a place where their future begins.
