04/05/2016

School feeding data goes online in the newest PG-HGSF case study from Kenya

School feeding data goes online in the newest PG-HGSF case study from Kenya

The PG-HGSF project published a new case study from Kenya as a part of its learning series. This study, Accessing the Future: School Feeding Data Goes Online by Katherine Casey and Hannah Reed looks at improving monitoring and evaluation tools in Laikipia, Kenya to increase government knowledge and transparency within school feeding programmes and other primary education services in the county.

Governments rely on accurate statistics to monitor the quality of their public education services and make informed decisions on how to invest in students and education infrastructure. In Kenya – where the government is working towards universal primary education – reliable statistics enable officials to report on successes or identify areas for additional investment. Since 2003, primary school enrolment has increased from 5.9 million pupils to 10.2 million in 2013. Complementary programs, like Kenya’s Home Grown School Meals (HGSM) programme, which fed 813,000 pupils in 2015, incentivise pupil enrollment and retention. However, the great strides made by HGSM are difficult to analyse at the local level within the current data collection framework. Data on individual schools is lost when aggregated in regional reports. We piloted an online data management tool for schools in Laikipia County to test a more accessible and transparent approach to improving data collection, storage and retrieval. This improved system helps the government to better monitor and plan for the HGSM program and other education indicators throughout the county.

Learn more about the Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding (PG-HGSF) project and download Accessing the Future: School Feeding Data Goes Online.