of girls. The gender parity index at primary level was 0.97 in 2007, then 0.98 in 2009 while in 2010 it was 1.02. 206. To improve availability of opportunities for education, the Government has supported the construction and rehabilitation of existing facilities and for pastoralist areas, provision of boarding and mobile schools. In what the MTP called the flagship projects in the education sector for 2009/2010, two model schools per constituency (making 420) were supported with Kshs 3.5 million per school to expand opportunities for the increased number of enrolled pupils. Subsequently, for example, the NER for North Eastern Province (now Garissa, Wajir and Mandera Counties) was 40.3 per cent (41.5 per cent male, 38.9 per cent female) against an MTP NER target of 38.6 per cent for 2010 under Kenya Vision 2030. This shows that the target was achieved and this was attributed to continued implementation of FPE as well as sensitization of parents/communities. 207. In a bid to enhance retention of children in school, the State has strengthened the school feeding programme which continued to provide mid-day meals to approximately 1.2 million pre-primary and primary school children in 64 arid and semi-arid districts and informal settlements of Nairobi. 208. The Government recognises that gender mainstreaming is a social justice issue and has therefore continued to seek ways of identifying ways of responding to the needs of women so as to advance gender equity in education. In 2007, the Government developed the National Gender Policy in Education with the aim of ensuring gender responsive education. During the reporting period, under this Policy, there have been initiatives aimed at providing grants for the construction of laboratories and supply of equipment to girls’ schools as a way of improving girls’ performance in science and technology. The policy allows girls to join higher institutions with lower grades than boys. Girls are also being provided with sanitary towels to ensure school attendance during menstruation. 209. Another measure that has been taken and which is in line with the Commission’s recommendations relates to increasing bursaries and textbook subsidies for children from poor families. During the reporting period, the textbook-pupils ratio (TPR) for lower primary school has improved from one textbook for more than 10 pupils before 2003 to 1:3 in 2007, 1:2 in 2008, remaining at 1:2 in 2009 and 1:1 in 2010. For upper primary TPR has improved from 1:2 in 2007 to 1:1 in 2008 and 1:1 in 2009 and 2010, thus improving the quality of education. 210. However there is still an ongoing challenge with regard to the teacher pupil ratio despite the fact that the Government has recruited 29,060 teachers in the last five years. Shortage of teachers means that many schools have a pupil to teacher ratio above 40:1, with as high as 85:1ratio in the high potential and urban areas. On the average, the pupils to teacher ratio at primary level moved from 44:1 in 2007 to 45:1 in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Children with special needs 211. The Commission’s recommendation that the Government takes measures to cater for special needs of children with disabilities, and integrate refugee children and internally displaced children in the regular school system has been happening progressively. Measures have been taken to enhance education in the informal settlements, with the Government providing capitation grants to 474 nonformal schools. However, this was below the MTP target of 700. 47