Income loss, abuse risk worry parents on schools closure

Parents are worried about the long-term effect of the disruption of their children’s schooling, a new survey shows.

The report by data firm Kantar dubbed Public Voice survey shows that 79 percent of people in Kenya are worried about education of children compared to the 71 percent who are worried about decreasing household income.

“Public Voice gave us a great opportunity to rapidly get robust data that we need at a time when face-to-face research was not possible, for example, on the impacts of financial distress on the erosion of long-term assets saved for education, business and farming, which are needed for rebuilding the economy,” said Amrik Heyer, a senior research adviser at Financial Sector Deepening Kenya, a co-sponsor of the study.

According to the report findings, the majority of the respondents said they are worried about children’s education, loss of income, and risk of abuse while children are out of school.

“Adults with more dependents report the most financial strain: 94 percent of those with more than three dependants report losing income, compared to 85 percent of people with no dependents,” read the report.

The report further stated that adults with dependants report more frequent conflicts with family members or others with whom they have close relationships, since Covid-19 outbreak.

Among those with more than three dependants, 42 percent report more frequent conflicts, compared to 30 percent of those who have no dependants.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country, there has been loss on income and jobs.

This has resulted in 40 percent of the people in the survey indicating they have had to look for a new job or source of income.

A total of 1,201 interviews were conducted over the telephone among adults (18+) living in Kenya between March 7-23.