This report presents the research results and policy suggestions that emerged from the implementation of SACMEQ’s initial educational policy research project. It is offered to other educational planners – not as a final evaluative comment, but rather as a stimulus for constructive discussion of educational policy options, and also as a successful model of productive collaboration among educational planners from many different countries. The first two chapters describe the setting and the conduct of the study. The following five chapters focus on the educational policy implications of the results arising from the data analyses. Chapter 3 presents the results from the analysis of baseline data for selected inputs to primary schools. Chapter 4 examines the results on how the conditions of schooling in Kenya compare with the Ministry’s own benchmarks. Chapter 5 analyzes the extent to which educational inputs to schools have been allocated in an equitable fashion among and within provinces. Chapter 6 presents the reading test results. Each of the chapters 3 to 6 includes a series of policy suggestions based on the results presented in them. Finally, chapter 7 presents ‘An Agenda for Action’ which summarizes the policy suggestions, classifies them in terms of low to high cost, and indicates whether they involve short- or long-term action.
