World Bank unveils monthly pay for teens to remain in school

The proposal will likely re-ignite the debate on the logic of paying children to attend classes.

Critics argue that paying children to attend classes makes learning a chore rather than a means to acquire vital skills and knowledge.

But the World Bank insists that the Cash-plus Programme will only benefit poor children who might be tempted to drop out of school due to financial constraints with some forced to work while others, especially girls, get married.

The World Bank reckons that the Cash-plus Programme will support poor and vulnerable adolescents to remain in or re-enter school and prevent teen pregnancy.

“Providing a comprehensive package of support to adolescents and their families depending on the presence/severity of risk factors among adolescents and willingness to remain in or re-enter education,” said the World Bank in the report dated November 2024.

“Cash top-ups will be provided to support enrolment and attendance in basic primary or secondary school among adolescent boys and girls in poor and vulnerable households,” added the World Bank.

The disclosure is contained in a report on the Second Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project.

This programme aims to improve access to social and economic services for vulnerable households in Kenya through cash transfers and social protection initiatives.

The Cash-plus Programme beneficiaries will be the 1.8 million existing households under the National Safety Net Programme (NSNP), also known as Inua Jamii.

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Inua Jamii benefits poor families in arid and semi-arid lands (Asals), the old, orphans and people with severe disabilities. However, the World Bank is concerned that adolescents, those aged between 10 and 19, receive little or no support through Kenya’s social protection system, despite being confronted with economic pressures that threaten their school attendance.

A lack of education has fed into the country’s unemployment crisis with a huge chunk of the population lacking critical employability skills.

The report did not disclose the amount of money the beneficiaries would receive. It also did not provide details on the period when the cash transfers will be made, though most such transfers are done monthly.

The World Bank measures educational attainment as completing at least one additional year of schooling or, for those out of school at baseline, re-entering primary or secondary school. Adolescents who do not wish to return to school will be offered skills training under the Cash-plus Programme, which will be integrated into the existing cash transfer initiative.

The proposed Cash-plus Programme will build on the existing government-financed cash transfer package that benefits 1.8 million poor households.

Adolescents drop out of school for various reasons, ranging from peer pressure, family problems or nomadic lifestyle by the pastoralist communities. However, experts reckon that the main reasons for dropouts are teen pregnancies and early marriage.

Official data shows that in 2023 the number of pregnant adolescents, aged between 10 and 19, dropped by 1.9 percent to 253,314.

Over the years, teen pregnancies have been declining as society moves away from customs that tolerated early marriages even as more children are forced to complete their primary education which has since been made mandatory.

In 2018, the government launched a 100 percent transition policy, which meant that every child who completed primary school was supposed to proceed to secondary school.

However, about 1.13 million children of primary school age (6 to 13) aren’t in school, according to Unicef.

In addition to giving cash to the adolescent, the World Bank says beneficiaries will receive supplemental services, including social and behavioural change activities for all parents and communities.

There will also be case management, psychosocial support, and childcare support for teenage mothers seeking to reenter school. The adolescents will receive life skills training, mentorship, and peer support for all adolescents. They will also be linked to relevant social services.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) in collaboration with the Directorate of Children’s Services (DCS) will monitor the school attendance of these beneficiaries.

“This includes awareness raising among schools in the relevant counties, development and implementation of data sharing protocols between MoE and DCS on beneficiaries of the adolescent sub-component, regular reporting on attendance and flagging of risk factors for take-up by DCS staff at the county and sub-county levels,” said the World Bank.

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