Educational Challenges for Refugee Children in Kakuma and Kalobeyei, Turkana County, Kenya: An Evidence Review

Refugee children in Kakuma and Kalobeyei in Turkana County, Kenya, often spend most of their childhood in the settlements, so education there is the main schooling they receive. This evidence review summarises what recent reporting and studies show about access, gender, disability, teachers, learning, language, and integration with the host community's education system, and places them in the context of funding trends and Kenya's Shirika Plan. Primary school is widely attended, with net enrolment of 81 per cent in Kakuma and 89 per cent in Kalobeyei against 53 per cent for Turkana hosts, but only 23 and 18 per cent of children, respectively, transition to secondary school. Girls approach parity in early grades but are about a third of students in upper grades. Learning is very low: in a 2018 assessment of 732 pupils, only 8.6 per cent of grade 3 pupils met the grade 2 fluency benchmark. Classes can exceed 100 pupils, and refugee teachers earn less than half the pay of national counterparts and cannot register with the Teachers Service Commission. Aid to education is falling, and the Shirika Plan, launched in 2025, sets no education targets in the sources reviewed. The review identifies gaps in current enrolment and learning data, evidence on girls and children with disabilities, and evaluation of the integration transition. It is non-systematic and some figures are dated