NAIROBI, Kenya Sep 7 – Homeschooling advocates are calling for clearer legal recognition of home education in Kenya, arguing that the practice is being used by families but remains insufficiently defined in the country’s education framework.

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The call was made by Emmanuel Nandokha, Convenor of the Home Education Reforms Initiative, during an interview on Capital FM’s Capital in the Morning, where he discussed homeschooling, proposed education reforms and the Basic Education Bill.

“Basically, homeschoolers have existed for years in Kenya, but we’ve never been formally recognized,” Nandokha said. He explained that the Home Education Reforms Initiative was formed after homeschooling families sought to engage the government on education reforms, adding that more than 1,500 parents had signed up in support of the initiative’s latest submission.

Nandokha said the group wants homeschooling to be recognised alongside other forms of education and clearly defined in documents governing education in Kenya.

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“Basically, just the same way the government recognizes public schools, private schools, and what they call Alternative Providers of Basic Education. We’d also want homeschooling to be recognized as a valid alternative to what you might call formal and informal schooling in the documentation that supports education in Kenya,” he said.

He described the current position as a “legal lacuna”, saying homeschooling is mentioned in some government documents but is not clearly defined.

“Basically, you’re entering into what some people call a legal lacuna. It’s a no man’s land where it is mentioned in one preface of one document, but it is not defined,” Nandokha said.

The issue of whether parents could face legal consequences for homeschooling was also raised during the interview. Nandokha said some parents had previously faced arrest and court proceedings because of the uncertainty surrounding the legal framework.

“Yeah, so like I said, because it’s not properly defined, then a parent can be arrested, and parents have been arrested for homeschooling and taken to court,” he said.

Nandokha cited the case of a man he identified as Silas, whom he said was arrested in Kakamega in 2019 and charged in a criminal case before the charges were dropped. He said the man later pursued a constitutional case against the government, the Attorney General and the Ministry of Education, but that case was also unsuccessful.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya