Every year thousands of students from Kenya aspire to pursue post-secondary education in the United States and Canada. And why not? For example, the US offers one of the largest number of universities offering a variety of options and is the leader in international student population given that it hosts about a million international students per year.

However, each year there are still many US and Canadian universities that require Kenyans to provide an English proficiency test (IELTS, TOEFL, etc.) as part of the admission process. Interestingly enough such universities will have a list of some “anglophone” African countries however will forget to list Kenya as one of them. In some cases, the universities will make an exception if the student is able to prove their medium of instruction was in English and was doing a British or American patterned curriculum. The reality is that not many Kenyan students fall in that category. 

We believe that it is time for American and Canadian universities to drop this requirement for Kenyan students on the following facts:

1. EF Education ranks Kenya Kenya #21 out of 112 countries in the world and #2 out of 21 on the continent listing us a high proficiency country.

2. English is one of the official languages of Kenya with all services provided in English.

3. Kenyan students whether in international curriculum or local curriculum are taught in English throughout the duration of their studies.

4. The cost of these tests and sending the results can be challenging to the average student, especially high achieving students from challenging socio-economic backgrounds who are seeking scholarships to fund their education.

5. The American and Canadian university application process is quite comprehensive and we believe there are more ways to assess proficiency than using expensive tests.

Join us in our petition to help reform this policy of requiring Kenyans to provide English proficiency tests!