Access to school is considered to be better for children who live in urban areas than in rural areas in countries such as Kenya. But research shows that this access doesn’t translate into children doing better at school if the setting is an informal settlement. Despite being able to attend school, some children don’t fully enjoy their right to education, because the urban advantage seems to have dwindled in these contexts in recent years.
Some years ago, our team of researchers at the African Population & Health Research Center in Kenya examined the enrolment patterns in slums and non-slum communities in Nairobi. Our study found that pupils living in non-slum areas had higher rates of primary school completion (92%) than their counterparts in urban informal settlements (76%). And the pupils outside slums were more likely (76%) to go on to secondary school than the pupils in slums were (46%).
