Hunger in the classroom

Hunger is the mechanism through which drought becomes an education crisis. In many northern counties, schools provide the most reliable meal a child receives each day. When drought tightens food supply, children either attend school hungry or stop attending altogether. Malnutrition weakens concentration, slows cognitive development, and reduces learning outcomes even for those who remain in class. Teachers report learners who are physically present but unable to engage effectively due to hunger and fatigue.

The school feeding programme, which has historically played a critical role in keeping children in class during times of crisis, is itself under strain. In many counties, a guaranteed meal at school is often the only reliable source of food for learners. When food stocks are depleted, attendance drops as children leave school to work on farms or seek casual jobs to help provide food for their families.

The funding for this lifeline is not secure. The National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya requires approximately Sh8.3 billion annually to sustain the school feeding programme but has been allocated only Sh1.7 billion in the current budget, a shortfall that lawmakers have warned could expose thousands of learners to the risk of dropping out. The council has scaled down to providing porridge as a stop-gap measure.

Water, sanitation, and the burden on girls

Water scarcity directly affects school operations. Many institutions rely on seasonal rainwater harvesting or distant water sources that become unreliable during prolonged dry spells. As many as 460 schools have no water source at all, and over 1,800 rely on harvesting rainwater. Without water, sanitation deteriorates, hygiene standards fall, and schools struggle to operate normally. Girls are disproportionately affected, as inadequate sanitation facilities contribute to absenteeism and eventual withdrawal from school.

The learning environment itself becomes a barrier to learning. A school that cannot provide water cannot support a girl in managing her period. A school without functioning latrines is a school where girls miss class every month, and the missing becomes its own reason for dropping out.

The long-term cost

The consequences of drought on education extend far beyond the period of the drought itself. Education is central to building resilience in pastoralist communities, offering alternatives to livelihoods increasingly threatened by climate change. When learning is interrupted year after year, young people lose the opportunity to acquire the skills needed to adapt to changing economic realities. The result is a cycle where vulnerability to climate shocks and limited educational attainment reinforce one another.

Each drought resets gains that schools and communities work hard to achieve during better seasons. The gap between learners in northern Kenya and those in more stable regions continues to widen, not due to a lack of effort or commitment, but because environmental shocks repeatedly undermine progress.

What is being done

In the face of this crisis, there are interventions that are making a difference. School feeding programmes, when reliably funded, keep children in school and able to concentrate. Catch-up classes and back-to-school community initiatives help children who have been out of school return to learning. Climate-resilient educational pathways are being tested. School farms in some ASAL schools are supplementing feeding programmes with locally produced food, improving dietary diversity while reducing dependence on external supply.

But these interventions operate at a scale far below the need. The funding shortfall in the school feeding programme is the most immediate constraint. The longer-term challenge is to anchor education planning in ASAL regions in climate realities rather than assuming a stability that no longer exists.

The drought affecting northern Kenya is often measured in lost livestock or distributed relief food. Less visible is the loss occurring in classrooms, where interrupted learning slowly erodes opportunity. If this trend continues, the region risks producing a generation whose education has been shaped more by climate shocks than by policy intention.