Free and compulsory primary and secondary education

Ensure the full implementation of free and compulsory primary and secondary education, removing all tuition fees, and eliminating all indirect fees for all girls who wish to return to school.
Ensure the right to free, quality, public education as effectively and expeditiously as possible, to the maximum of Kenya’s available resources.

Re-entry policies

Get final Ministry of Education approval for the National Re-Entry Guidelines for Learners in Basic Education, publish and disseminate them throughout all schools, and train teachers on how to apply them. Ensure that the Guidelines are publicly available.
Implement the National School Health Policy and remove problematic language in the policy, particularly the section that reads: ‘the school administration shall make all efforts to treat the teenage mother like other students and not keep “reminding her of her mistake.” To all intents and purposes the school fraternity shall act as if nothing had happened to her’.
Ensure that young mothers are accommodated so that they can balance schoolwork and motherhood responsibilities, including: longer breaks for breastfeeding, time-off when necessary, rescheduling exams, etc.
Increase funding for the implementation of re-entry policies and related policies such as the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy and National Re-Entry Guidelines for Learners in Basic Education, once they have been approved.

Monitoring

Improve monitoring processes including monitoring implementation of school re-entry policies by collecting data on the number of pregnant students who return to school, their school attendance and completion rates; and use the information to improve support for pregnant girls and student mothers.
Include indicators for girls who drop-out due to pregnancy and re-entry in the National Education Management Information System.
Develop and implement mechanisms to follow-up on and keep track of girls who drop out of school due to pregnancy, with the aim of facilitating their return to school.

Childcare

Establish a legal and / or policy and framework supporting the development of childcare services, with a view to ensuring the policy supports the re-entry of mothers, and by establishing childcare centres and appropriate childcare facilities close to primary and secondary schools.
Sensitise families to the importance of girls’ education so that girls’ parents and relatives are more motivated to fully support girls’ return to school, including by arranging childcare. Care must be taken to ensure that such childcare is understood as a shared responsibility.

Discrimination and stigmatisation

Implement public information campaigns directed at families, community leaders, and adolescent boys and girls that address the stigma around teenage pregnancy, sexuality, and reproduction, and discuss the importance of sex education and promote ways for parents to talk about healthy sexual practices.
Take action to promote gender equality, dismantle harmful gender stereotypes, and engage all students, including boys, to critically assess gender norms in schools.
Ensure that pregnant students and young mothers are able to learn in an environment free from stigma and discrimination.

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE)

Implement the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy.
Enact legislation establishing a right to receive rights-based and age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education, in line with international best practices and UNESCO’s international technical guidance.
Review the national curriculum to include compulsory, examinable classes that meet international standards, on all aspects of CSE, including: responsible sexual behavior, and prevention of early pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Include information and skills related to gender equality, the ability to form healthy relationships, consent to sex and marriage and the difference, and prevention of sexual and gender-based violence, including avenues for reporting and redress.
Train teachers to teach the curriculum impartially and effectively.

Sexual and reproductive health

Implement the Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy:
Ensure students receive information and access to modern forms of contraception, including emergency contraception.
Ensure that girls can access antenatal care and support.
Increase funding for the provision of sanitary products per the Basic Education Act.
Develop linkages between schools and health services as part of efforts to reduce teenage pregnancy and support pregnant and parenting adolescents.
Provide school-based counselling services for students who are pregnant or mothers.
Provide long-term psychosocial support to adolescent survivors of sexual abuse and harassment.
Repeal provisions of the Penal Code that criminalise abortion that are inconsistent with the constitution, and introduce legislation that provides for an exemption from prosecution in cases of sexual assault of girls.

Access to justice

Establish confidential reporting mechanisms in schools or at the local level so that survivors of sexual assault can report and seek support.
Ensure that teachers or others in a position of authority have a legal duty to report sexual abuse and that it is a crime offence if they fail to do so.
Provide training for relevant officials in the criminal justice system, for example, judges, prosecutors, legal professionals, law enforcement officials, and medical personnel on the application of criminal law provisions, and on gender-sensitive investigation and interrogation procedures, in cases of gender-based violence against girls.
Ensure all relevant officials are trained on the criminal nature of the various forms of sexual violence and ensure the procedure for reporting rape, defilement, incest, and other forms of gender-based violence is clear and publicly available.
Increase the investigation, prosecution, and conviction rates in cases of sexual and gender-based violence.
Ensure that girls and their families are aware that they have a right to file a criminal complaint, free of charge, and can file complaints without fear of retribution or stigma and that they have access to effective remedies and victim support, such as legal, social, medical, and psychological assistance and shelters.
Establish rescue centres and increase funding and availability of witness protection programmes so that sexual abuse survivors can be kept safe whilst cases are ongoing.

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