Feature: Slum residents embrace adult education as stigma fades

Joy Kimani spent most of her childhood helping her mum hawk groundnuts. A slum resident in Kenya's Nairobi, she did not go to school due to her family's poor financial situation.

Her only childhood memory related to school life was two weeks in kindergarten, before she was sent back home to collect fees.

Now 24 and a mother of three, Kimani tried to make up for the lost time by joining Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), a community-based organization that provides free adult classes in basic literacy in slums around Kenya.

"I have always desired to attend school against the odds that are weighed against me, but I'm determined to soldier on. The program has helped me garner basic reading skills and simple calculations in the last two years," Kimani who lives in the Kibera slums told Xinhua.

Kimani's wishes are as simple as to be able to fill government forms with minimal assistance and helping her children with their homework.

"I feel embarrassed whenever I have to be assisted to fill in even from people younger than me like my niece did when I was opening a bank account," she said.

Victoria Mumbi, 35, and a mother of two is another beneficiary who joined the program with dreams of running her own business after completing the course.

Mumbi, whose parents did not take her to school, was raised in Kibera slums where she has spent most of her time doing house chores and looking after her younger siblings.

"My parents could only afford food and shelter from their daily earnings of about 2 U.S. pence. Only our last born out of eight siblings had a chance to go to school and is a candidate this year," Mumbi said.

The program has benefited women who have been strong enough to share classes with, and to be taught by people even younger than them.

Another student of the program Joyce Anyango said the stigma attached to adult education has been on the wane compared with three years ago when her friends frowned about her decision to seek education.

"Most of my friends were of the opinion it was a waste of time, questioning why I would close my business to attend classes that I should have attended as a young girl many years ago," Anyango observed.

"Initially it was hard, but the gains far much outweigh the stares I received when I started. I am able to help my son with his homework and this is something I'm really proud of," she said.

The Kenyan government in January announced plans to conduct a national literacy study to establish the current literacy rates and impact of literacy skills in livelihoods of Kenyans.

More than 7.8 million youth and adults in the country lack the minimum literacy level required for participation in national development, according to the country's ministry of education.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i has said there was an urgent need to re-evaluate the strategies and mechanism of reducing the worrying figures.

Kenya has not had notable progress in attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal No.4 of ensuring that 95 percent of youth and 80 percent of adults are literate by 2030.

Matiang'i said his ministry will address issues surrounding attitude and stigma that literacy programs faces. Endit