Administrative and other measures to enhance access to education 201. In ASAL regions, there is a food programme for school meals. Kenyans living in rural areas and ASALs suffer from poor land quality and chronic water shortages, which have contributed to food insecurity in these areas. The School, Health and Nutrition Programme is a partnership between the Ministry of Education and the World Food Programme to promote universal basic education among disadvantaged children. Target group are pre-primary and primary school pupils in ASAL districts and urban slums. The programme targets about 1.5 million children for mid-day meals. As a result, enrolment has increased in the districts and areas covered. 202. There is also affirmative action on admission (quota) system for children from ASAL regions. The Quota system of selection was launched on 11th January, 2011. The quota system for national schools involves a formula in which the total number of pupils in a district is divided by that of the entire country and then multiplied by the vacancies available. The figure arrived at represents the national school slots available for each district with the final selection based on the public-private school ratio. The move was meant to address concerns that pupils from public schools who are presumed to be disadvantaged in terms of education facilities and social background lose out to pupils from private schools that have better facilities and learning atmosphere. The Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) has opposed this criterion arguing that it is discriminatory. Access to Primary education 203. The Government recognises the significant social and economic payoffs derived from investment in Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) including overcoming children educational disadvantages for poor children, supporting parents and increasing female employment because of the level of care needed at this level of education. Previously investment in this area has been left mostly to the household, private sector and religious organizations. Since 2012, the processing of capitation grants to support ECDE with a budget of Kshs 1.6 billion to about 19,000 public ECDE centres with 1.4 million children commenced. 204. Enrolment in the ECDE increased from 1.914 million (967,544 boys and 946,678 girls) in 2009 to 2.13 million (1,100,890 boys and 1,092,181 girls) in 2010. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) increased from 60.2 per cent (61.6 for boys and 58.7 for girls in 2009 to 60.9 per cent (60.3 for boys and 61.4 for girls) in 2010. The Net Enrolment Rates (NER) increased from 40.4 per cent (40.8 per cent for boys and 40.0 per cent for girls) in 2009 to 41.8 per cent (42.3 per cent for boys and 41.2 per cent for girls) in 2010 against the MTP target of 76.6 per cent (76.9 per cent for boys and 76.2 per cent for girls). 205. Likewise at the primary education level the GER increased from 108.9 per cent (118 and 106 per cent for boys and girls respectively) in 2007 to 110.0 per cent (112.8 per cent and 107.2 per cent for boys and girls, respectively) in 2009, and dropped slightly to 109.8 per cent (109.8 per cent and 109.9 per cent for boys and girls, respectively) in 2010. The NER increased from 91.6 per cent (94.1 per cent and 89.0 per cent for boys and girls, respectively) in 2007 to 92.9 per cent (93.6 per cent and 92.1 per cent for boys and girls, respectively) in 2009 and then dropped marginally to 91.4 per cent (90.6 and 92.3 per cent for boys and girls, respectively) in 2010. The gender disparity in enrolment has been improving in favour 46