More boys than girls now out of schools

More boys in the country are either dropping out of school or failing to join classrooms altogether, a new report has revealed, exposing a growing crisis in the country’s education system despite years of investment in expanding access to learning.

The 2025 Gender Report on Education by the Usawa Agenda shows that boys now make up the bigger share of children missing out on education nationally, even as they continue to enjoy greater advantages in school resources and opportunities later in the education system.

According to the report, 5.1 per cent of boys are out of school compared to 4.3 of their female counterparts.

In refugee camps, the statistics are different in favour of boys as they record 18.5 per cent out of school and 21.8 per cent for girls

This means that for every 100 boys of school-going age, about five are not in school, compared to four girls in every 100. 

In refugee camps, however, girls remain the most disadvantaged, with nearly 22 out of every 100 girls out of school compared to 19 boys. 

The findings are based on an analysis of national household and school data collected over recent years, including trends emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic up to 2025.

Researchers examined school enrolment, literacy, learning outcomes, teenage pregnancy, teacher distribution and leadership representation across primary, junior and senior schools, including refugee populations.

Although the overall number of children out of school has dropped nationally to 4.7 per cent, the report says deep inequalities still persist depending on gender, region and household background.

The study found that while girls now enrol in primary school at slightly higher rates than boys and generally perform better in literacy and numeracy assessments, many boys are increasingly abandoning school in search of income-generating activities.

Emmanuel Manyasa said the trend is especially common in fishing communities and miraa-growing regions, where boys are often drawn into informal work at an early age.

“You can tell if you go to Meru, you find that a lot of boys are dropping out because engaging in miraa business is more profitable than being in school,” he said, adding that some boys leave school to support their families.

Manyasa noted that the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the situation after many boys ventured into casual jobs during school closures and never returned to class.

“We have seen these trends since Covid. During the lockdowns, a lot of boys started being boda boda riders and after schools reopened, they did not see the value of going back to school,” he said.

The report also linked school exclusion to poverty and education levels within households.

Children raised by guardians without formal education were found to face the greatest risk of dropping out.

According to the findings, a child living in a household headed by someone with no formal education is nearly 10 times more likely to be out of school compared to a child raised by a university graduate.

Refugee children were also found to face severe barriers in accessing education.

While only about three in every 100 primary school-age children nationally are out of school, the figure rises sharply to nearly one in every five among refugee children.

Teenage pregnancy emerged as one of the biggest threats to girls’ education, with the report faulting weak implementation of the national school re-entry policy.

The findings show that girls who are out of school are significantly more vulnerable to early pregnancy. Nearly one in every four girls aged 16 who were not in school was reported pregnant, compared to just three per cent among girls still attending classes.

“If a girl is not in school, she is 12 times more likely to get pregnant than her colleague who is in school,” Manyasa said.

Nationally, 1.5 per cent of teenage girls reported pregnancies in the year preceding the survey. Nairobi recorded the highest prevalence at 2.5 per cent, followed by Nyanza at 2.1 per cent and Rift Valley at 1.8 per cent.

Although more than half of the girls who became pregnant while in school eventually returned after childbirth, regional disparities remained stark. Central and Nyanza recorded the highest return-to-school rates at 69 and 64 per cent, respectively, while the Coast region had the lowest at 22.6 per cent.

Researchers further found that most teenage pregnancies involved younger learners, with six out of every 10 affected girls being in junior school. Alarmingly, some of the victims were as young as 13 years old.

At the senior school level, the report identified a major resource imbalance favouring boys’ schools.

Boys’ schools were found to offer a wider range of KCSE examinable subjects than girls’ schools, potentially giving male learners broader academic and career opportunities.

Cluster One schools offered the widest subject choices, averaging 15 examinable subjects, while mixed schools, particularly private institutions, offered the fewest.

The study also highlighted gender imbalance in staffing and leadership across schools.

Women account for 58 per cent of teachers in primary schools, but their representation drops to 51 per cent in junior schools and 43 per cent in senior schools. STEM subjects, particularly sciences and mathematics, remain heavily dominated by male teachers.

Women were also found to be underrepresented in school leadership positions, especially as headteachers and chairpersons of Boards of Management.

Abdul Haro called for stronger support systems to ensure children from vulnerable backgrounds remain in school.

He urged the government to harmonise bursaries and scholarships to fully realise free basic education, warning that children in arid and semi-arid areas risk being left behind if funding gaps persist.

“The Constitution says every child in this country has a right to basic education and you cannot give that right to that child if you are charging for that education because some poor parents may miss out,” he said