NAIROBI, Kenya – As Kenya prepares to join the rest of the globe next week in marking the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, Kenyan activists are raising alarm over the state of infrastructure in most learning institutions in the country.
The World Day for Safety and Health at Work in 2025 will highlight the influence of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) on worker safety and health.
This theme aims to address the evolving landscape of workplace hazards and opportunities created by these technologies.
The focus includes exploring how AI and digitalisation impact worker well-being, the potential for these technologies to improve safety, and the challenges associated with their implementation.
However, in the run-up to the celebrations to be held on Monday, April 28, 2025, Nguvu Change Leader Synthia Mideva Asienwa is urging the Ministry of Education to step in and address learning poverty in the country.
“Access to quality education in Kenya is increasingly slipping away for children from poor backgrounds. While the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) is a good initiative, its implementation has been weak. Parents face rising financial burdens, overcrowded classrooms, and a lack of basic infrastructure. This makes learning harder for students and adds immense pressure on teachers,” says Synthia.
Why did a majority of Kenyan learners experience challenges in 2024
In Kenya, more than two million learners experienced disrupted schooling due to the loss of teaching and learning materials and damage to school infrastructure caused by heavy rains and flooding during the long rainy season last year (March to May 2024), according to a press release issued by UNICEF in January 2025.
However, even before this crisis, the challenges in Kenya’s education sector had been recorded in various study reports, with the divide between urban and rural education access continuing to grow.
For instance, the World Bank Group’s Kenya – ‘Learning Poverty Brief -2024’ noted that 79% of children at the end of primary school could not meet minimum reading proficiency, largely due to poor education quality and limited access to learning opportunities.
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Various education advocates have also raised concerns about the quality of education and its impact on both learners and teachers. The lack of infrastructure and widespread poverty have made teaching conditions difficult, leaving many students without the tools to learn effectively.
Synthia recalls how teachers are often faced with students opening up about their difficult home lives, which makes the lack of school support even more painful.
“If schools can provide the necessary resources, students would feel less helpless, and we could begin to address learning poverty,” she adds.
Ahead of this day, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is pushing for the protection of the rights of employees and workers.
How can the number of work-related deaths and injuries be reduced
According to the ILO, there is a need to cultivate a culture of occupational safety and health to reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries.
“The World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2025 should be a moment to encourage governments to ensure appropriate work environments, infrastructure, and just laws for employees and workers,” says the ILO.
Meanwhile, Synthia has already launched an online petition urging the Ministry of Education to equip schools with digital devices to support CBC learning activities and assignments.
She also calls for the recruitment of more junior secondary school teachers, the construction of additional classrooms to reduce overcrowding, and proper training for teachers, especially in technical subjects.
Her advocacy is rooted in personal experience. Growing up in poverty, Synthia says her education would have ended prematurely had she not received a scholarship from the Equity Group Foundation and the Higher Education Loans Board.
“No child’s dreams should be held back by poverty,” she concludes.
