Citizen-led assessments were developed in the mid-2000s to gather evidence on children's learning outcomes following the rapid increase in primary student enrolment in the developing world. Integral to their philosophy is social accountability and community engagement. While most large-scale assessments focus on test-based accountability to…

Dialogue can be an excellent weapon for justice and liberation, which 'silenced' groups could use to challenge the status quo and authenticate their efficacy. Over the years, there has been a preconceived negative focus on Africans which has suppressed African children's autonomy. Consequently, there is a need to liberate the position of children…

Language use and creative writing go hand in hand. In the process of exploring language, we also engage in the study of literature. An engagement with literature is, indeed, a continuing process of improving our capacity to use language and refining our sensibility to good language use. In Kenya, there are clearly discernible patterns of creative…

Despite setting high hopes on education, very few pastoral nomad children in Kenya transition from primary education to secondary education. This article argues that the national Kenyan compulsory formal curriculum fails to accommodate the needs of pastoralist communities. Literacy rates are particularly low among the Turkana people, pastoralist…

The East African Research Information Centre (EARIC), sponsored by the East African Academy and financed by the Ford Foundation, is a new institution intended to promote efficient information exchange within the field of the social sciences and development. Its immediate objectives are to collect, collate and disseminate information on past and…

The present Information Circular covering the language situation in East Africa has been prepared as a bibliographic reference tool for specialists, universities, and libraries. The introductory section describes the work of EARIC (East African Research Information Centre), which is sponsored by the East African Academy and financed by the Ford…

This study compares the English and Swahili language texts used in the primary grades in Kenya and Tanzania in order to ascertain the role of language in determining the content of instruction and to relate the content of these texts to significant characteristics of governmental educational policy and the values underlying them. The introductory…