Education and Literacy

Pre-School Education

The county has a total population of 87,594 children falling within the age group of 3 to 5 (pre-school). This consists of 44,177 males and 43,417 females. The total number of ECD teachers is 1,843 and the teacher to pupil ratio is 1:40. However, most of the teachers are paid by parents and this is likely to compromise quality since not all are qualified to handle the young ones during the formative stages. We are optimistic that the court case filed by KNUT will soon be over so that we can bring qualified teachers on board. Total enrolment for ECD in the county is 73,730. Public ECD centres have an enrolment of 29,655 comprising of 15,563 males and 14,092 females. Private ECD centres have a total enrolment of 44,075 children comprising of 22,134 males and 21,941 females. There is therefore need for more investments in public ECD centres to ensure children from poor background get access to early education without much strain.

Primary Education

There are 1,225 primary schools in Kiambu County out of which 576 are public and 349 are private. The total number of primary school teachers is 21,090 and the teacher to pupil ratio is 1:38. The total enrolment rate stands at 295,409 pupils comprising of 115,375 males and 113,910 females. The gross enrolment rate stands at 109.6 percent, while the net enrolment rate is 99.7 percent. This could be attributed to the introduction of Free Primary Education programme. Infrastructure in schools has also improved through devolved funds e.g. Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF). However, the county still needs to invest in the provision of additional education facilities because of the increasing number of school going population.

Literacy

The percentage of people within the county who can read stands at 95.6 percent while 3.8 percent of the total population cannot read. Also, 95.2 percent of the total population can write while 4.2 percent cannot write. About 95.4 percent of the total population within the county can read and write while 4.6 percent cannot read and write. Those who can read and write stand at 95.4 per cent. The high literacy rates are as a result of continued investment in the education sector and there is need for more investment to ensure the literacy levels gets to 100 percent.

Secondary Education

There are 303 secondary schools consisting of 227 public and 76 private schools. The total enrolment rate is 89,065 out of which 44,777 are males and 44,288 are females. The gross enrolment rate is 69.3 percent and the net enrolment rate is 61.8 percent. The number of teachers in the county stands at 3,479 and the teacher/pupil ratio is 1:25. As indicated in the fact sheet, the completion rate is 92.5 percent and therefore there is need for great investment in the education sector to ensure the rate reaches 100 percent.

Tertiary Education

The County has one public University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology located in Juja Constituency and two satellite campuses namely University of Nairobi, Kikuyu campus in Kikuyu sub county and Kenyatta University , Ruiru campus in Ruiru Sub County. There are six private universities which include Gretsa University, Mount Kenya University, St. Paul‘s University, Kiriri Women‘s Science and Technology University and Presbyterian University of East Africa, Zitech University in Ruiru and a number of tertiary colleges. The county also has two Teacher Training Colleges namely Kilimambogo Teachers in Thika Sub County and Thogoto Teachers in Kikuyu sub county. These institutions have gone a long way in ensuring secondary school graduates get access to higher education therefore ensuring the availability of necessary skills required in the job market.