CONTRIBUTORS
Farah Abdimalik
Research Officer
This blog was led by Abdimalik Farah (APHRC) with co-authorship from Lydia Namatende-Sakwa (APHRC), Erick Makhapila, (APHRC), Davis Musyoki (APHRC), Sophie Lashford (Save the Children), Nancy Njeru (Save the Children), Deurence Onyango (Save the Children), Abdikadir Osman (Save the Children), and Geofrey Tanui (Save the Children), whose collective expertise and thoughtful contributions were instrumental in shaping the perspectives shared in this piece.
Introduction
When Fatuma, a 12-year-old learner in Dadaab, walks into her classroom each morning, she carries more than her books; she carries the weight of uncertainty. Her family has lived in the camp for over a decade. Although she dreams of becoming a teacher, her education journey is marked by overcrowded classrooms, language barriers, and unclear exam registration processes that often leave her and other refugee learners in limbo.
In Kenya’s arid north, the counties of Garissa (home to Dadaab refugee camp) and Turkana (home to Kakuma refugee camp) have hosted refugees for more than three decades, with a current population of about 855,000 refugees and asylum seekers (UNHCR, 2025). Yet behind these statistics are thousands of learners, teachers, and families striving for education, dignity, and belonging — both in refugee camps and in the host communities that support them.
For decades, education in refugee-hosting areas has depended heavily on humanitarian aid, has been fragmented and donor-driven, and has often operated in parallel to the national system. Today, with the Refugee Act (2021), the SHIRIKA Plan (2025), the National Education Sector Strategic Plan (2023–2027), and Kenya’s commitments under the Global Compact on Refugees, the country stands at a turning point.
As the Ministry of Education, working alongside the Department of Refugee Services (DRS), UNHCR, and development partners, advances a Costed Education and Training Strategy for Refugees and Host Communities, this moment represents more than a policy milestone — it’s a shift from commitment to concrete, fundable action.
What a Costed Plan Means
A costed plan is a structured framework that translates policy priorities into measurable and budgeted actions. Originating from global education planning tools supported by the World Bank and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), such plans help governments move beyond high-level commitments to implementation. They assign clear financial values, timelines, and accountability measures to each intervention, ensuring that progress is both realistic and trackable.
Unlike broad education strategies that outline what needs to be done, a costed plan defines how, by whom, and with what resources. For Kenya, it provides a mechanism to integrate refugee and host community education into the national planning cycle, promoting sustainability, transparency, and shared accountability.
Why Validation Matters
The recent validation process for Kenya’s Costed Education and Training Strategy was more than a technical exercise. It represented a shared commitment bringing together government agencies, UN partners, educators, and civil society to ensure that the strategy reflects both national priorities and the lived realities of refugee and host community schools. This collective validation gave the plan legitimacy, alignment, and momentum to move from paper to practice.
For Refugee Learners: From Access to Inclusion
Refugee learners in Dadaab and Kakuma face persistent challenges — language barriers, overcrowded classrooms, limited learning materials, and psychosocial hurdles, as well as identity-related complications during exam registration. A costed strategy ensures resources are ring-fenced to tackle these issues through targeted interventions such as:
- Language transition programs for learners from non-Swahili/English-speaking backgrounds;
- Remedial and catch-up learning for over-age and displaced learners;
- Gender-responsive and disability-inclusive infrastructure; and
- Psychosocial support to help children recover from trauma.
This aligns with the NESSP 2023–2027 commitment to address gender disparities and ensure that learning environments are safe, inclusive, and supportive for all learners.
Across the region, Rwanda’s inclusion model demonstrates what is possible when refugee education is embedded into national systems. Refugee learners there sit the same national exams and are taught by nationally trained teachers, ensuring equal recognition and legitimacy. Similarly, in Türkiye, the Promoting Integration of Syrian Kids into the Turkish Education System (PIKTES) program invested in teacher development, school infrastructure, and psychosocial support , demonstrating that inclusion succeeds when backed by clear policy, financing, and capacity-building.
Kenya’s costed plan can build on these lessons — funding bilingual learning support, equitable resource distribution, and school expansion — so every child has both access and recognition in the national system.
For Teachers: Stability, Equity, and Professional Growth
Behind every learner’s success stands a teacher. In refugee contexts, educators — both national and refugee — form the backbone of educational continuity. Yet many face contract instability, low pay, and limited training.
During a stakeholder engagement in Dadaab (October 6–10, 2025) convened by UNHCR, refugee teachers and school leaders voiced deep concerns about wage disparities and career stagnation. Some refugee teachers, despite being trained and certified in Kenyan colleges, earn as little as KES 10,000 per month, compared to their national counterparts, who earn upwards of KES 22,000. Qualified refugee educators cannot register with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) because the process requires a National ID, which refugees do not possess.
Movement restrictions under Kenya’s encampment policy further limit teachers’ ability to pursue higher education or professional development. As one teacher shared:
“We want to improve ourselves, but our papers and movement stop us at the barriers in Dadaab.”
The differentiated assistance model has compounded these challenges. Introduced to target aid based on household vulnerability, it has left many refugee teachers categorized as “self-reliant” and thus excluded from food assistance, despite earning modest stipends. This misalignment undermines morale, retention, and teacher wellbeing — all critical to educational quality.
To achieve true inclusion, Kenya’s costed strategy must include dedicated funding for teacher development, equitable remuneration, TSC registration pathways for refugee educators, and mobility rights for professional growth.
For Host Communities: Shared Schools, Shared Progress
A costed plan also benefits host communities, ensuring they share in the gains of inclusive education. In Turkana and Garissa, schools often serve both refugee and host learners, yet infrastructure and teacher distribution lag behind national averages. By covering the costs of joint infrastructure, shared teacher deployment, and inclusive school leadership, the strategy fosters social cohesion and strengthens local systems.
The SHIRIKA Plan recognizes that host communities bear much of the burden of refugee hosting and therefore calls for shared investments in education, health, and infrastructure. Through a costed strategy, Kenya can ensure host schools are adequately resourced — promoting social cohesion, peacebuilding, and shared progress.
Ethiopia’s joint investment model offers a compelling example: by building schools that serve both groups, it increased enrolment and reduced community tensions. Kenya’s plan can achieve the same, proving that inclusion is not a burden but a multiplier of opportunity.
Field Reflections from Dadaab: Voices from the Frontline
The Dadaab engagement revealed that community dialogue is essential to the success of Kenya’s costed education strategy. Teachers, headteachers, and Boards of Management emphasized that no strategy can succeed without addressing lived realities — from inadequate pay to overcrowded classrooms holding up to 80 learners per class.
They also called for greater school-level funding autonomy, allowing schools to respond swiftly to urgent needs such as classroom expansion, learning materials, and psychosocial support. Their message was clear:
“Inclusion without investment is an illusion.”
These voices must guide policymakers as Kenya moves from planning to implementation — ensuring that every budget line reflects the lived experiences of those it seeks to serve.
From Planning to Practice: Financing and Accountability
For Kenya’s refugee and host community education systems, the costed strategy marks a shift from dependence to direction, anchoring inclusion in government-led planning backed by evidence and research.
As the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Save the Children International (SCI), and partners under the TeachWell Project continue to generate insights, these findings can guide iterative improvements — ensuring that investments deliver real results for children, teachers, and communities.
Ultimately, a costed strategy is more than a financial document — it’s a moral contract. It says every child, teacher, and community in Garissa and Turkana matters, and that education is the foundation for resilience, equity, and shared prosperity.
For the strategy to succeed, it must move from paper to practice. That requires:
- Dedicated financing in the national education budget and county integrated development plans (CIDPs) for Garissa and Turkana;
- Integration into NESSP’s annual implementation matrices, ensuring accountability and reporting;
- Data systems disaggregated by refugee and host status to track inclusion and learning outcomes; and
- Collaborative implementation between MoE, DRS, UNHCR, and partners under the SHIRIKA Plan framework.
Accountability must go beyond expenditure tracking .It must measure real outcomes: school retention, teacher wellbeing, and improved learning outcomes.
If fully implemented, Kenya’s costed strategy will not only strengthen education in Garissa and Turkana but also set a continental benchmark for inclusion, proving that when a nation invests in refugee and host community education, it invests in its own stability and future.