Machakos Primary Schhool. [Photo/Miano twitter.com]
Machakos county has been ranked 17th out of the 47 counties in literacy levels.
Twaweza East Africa survey indicates Machakos county learning levels at 50.5 per cent, above the national average of 47.4 per cent.
The survey also shows that only three out of ten pupils in standard three can do class two work, while one out of ten children in class eight can do class two work.
The study further shows that teacher and pupil attendance are high as only one out of ten pupils and teachers missed school on the day of Uwezo visit, which is above the national average.
Mwala district registered high cases of absenteeism with seven out of a hundred pupils missing school compared to five cases in Yatta district.
However, it is worth noting that most children aged six to sixteen are attending school as only three out of a hundred children in the age bracket are out of school.
Machakos county government's support of ECDE is arguably wanting as it supports only one out of ten ECDE centres in the county which is thrice lower than the national average. Six out of ten children of preschool going are attending preschool, with more boys than girls attending.
The research titled 'Are our children learning?' showed an imbalance in teacher/classroom ratio in the county as Machakos district has thirteen teachers per school with 10 streams compared to Mwala district which has eight teachers for a similar school.
It further shows that boys have higher reading skills than girls in English but there is parity in their reading competences in Kiswahili.
Kangundo District has the highest literacy competencies while Mwala District has the lowest.