Parental aspirations for their children’s educational attainment and the realisation of universal primary education (UPE) in Kenya: Evidence from slum and non-slum residences Moses Oketch a,b, *, Maurice Mutisya a , Jackline Sagwe a a African Population and Health Research Centre, Nairobi, Kenya b Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK 1. Introduction Education is going to be critical in the next decade to how Africa manages its resources, transforms its democracies to acceptable international standards, and improve the livelihoods of its population. This critical role is summarised in the World Bank publications that asks the following question: Will Africa claim the 21st Century? (World Bank, 2000). Others studies have clearly regressed the role of education on economic well being (Hanushek and Wo ¨ ßmann, 2007; Haveman and Wolfe, 1984; Saint-Paul and Verdier, 1993; Oketch, 2006), on democracy (Acemoglu et al., 2005; Heyneman, 1998; McNeil, 2002), and other human development indicators (UNESCO, 2005) and they all point to the same direction that Africa will be transformed by the emphasis and investment in education. However, while the emphasis on education has been stronger since the Jometien in 1990 (Jometien, 1990) and the setting of the MDG and EFA targets in 2000, the role of education in Africa has been emphasised right from the day many of its nations gained independence in the 1960s. Several attempts to realise sustainable UPE have failed, partly due to financial challenges, political instability, general poverty levels among others. Recent shift in financial allocation that prioritises education over defence is an indication that if the trend continues, the dream of universal primary education (UPE) is likely to be realised and sustained in several countries in the next decade. Kenya typifies a case of aspiration for UPE since the 1960s with failures in between and recent success through the implementation of its FPE program in 2003. This policy enabled 1 million additional children to enter public education system in 2003, although with many challenges such as overcrowding, declining quality, and high pupil teacher ratios. Nonetheless, to some, these are issues that will be eased off and be addressed once every child is in school – in other words, the first step is to ensure that there is UPE for every school going child. However, recent studies (see e.g. Deininger, 2003) indicate that cost barrier is not the only barrier and that the gains in enrolment that have been observed in many countries are at risk due to other factors, particularly deteriorating quality. Other factors such as awareness building – of which is the extent to which parents are involved in their children’s education are also crucial. Also, while governments claim that basic primary education is compulsory, there are no clear mechanisms to enforce this policy. In this paper, we therefore argue that given this scenario, parents are going to be as critical as financial allocation by governments to the realisation of UPE. One way to determine the extent to which parents have International Journal of Educational Development 32 (2012) 764–772 A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Aspirations Attainment Slum and non-slum Kenya Educational policy International education A B S T R A C T There is a sound research base attesting to the importance of parental involvement and to the many potential benefits it can offer for children’s education. This study sought to examine differences in parental aspirations (as a mechanism of parental involvement in their children’s education) for their children’s educational attainment between slum and non-slum residing parents in Kenya. The study used cross-sectional household data for a sample of 4065 parents, collected in 2007 by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) in Nairobi. A multinomial logistic model was used for the analysis to explore the factors determining parental aspirations. The results indicate the following: (i) that parents who live in the slums have lower aspirations for their children’s educational attainment when compared to those who live in non-slum areas; (ii) that parents in the slums have aspirations for higher levels of educational attainment for their children than their own levels of education. We conclude that parents in urban Kenya have a strong belief in the education of their children irrespective of their slum or non-slum residence but aspirations are higher in non-slums than in slums. ß 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Institute of Education, University of London, London, UK. E-mail address: m.oketch@ioe.ac.uk (M. Oketch). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Educational Development jo ur n al ho m ep ag e: ww w.els evier .c om /lo cat e/ijed u d ev 0738-0593/$ – see front matter ß 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.04.002