Gladys Shollei

A Kenyan education advocate who pioneered girls' education in East Africa through innovative community initiatives

Gladys Shollei (1944-2018) was a visionary educator and women's rights activist from Kenya whose work transformed access to education for girls in East Africa. Born in a Maasai community where female education was virtually nonexistent, she defied cultural norms by completing her primary education and later became one of the first Maasai women to earn a university degree.

In 1973, she co-founded the Equal Education Fund, which pioneered community-based education programs in remote areas. Her most notable achievement was establishing the mobile school buses concept in the 1980s, using converted trucks to bring classrooms to nomadic communities. This initiative resulted in over 10,000 girls gaining literacy skills by the early 2000s.

Shollei's work extended globally through her role with UNESCO's Girls' Education Initiative (GEI), where she developed strategies to address cultural barriers to girls' schooling. Her UNESCO reports remain foundational texts in gender-sensitive education policy design. In 1995, she delivered a landmark speech at the Beijing Women's Conference that influenced the inclusion of girls' education in the Millennium Development Goals.

Her legacy includes the Gladys Shollei Girls' School in Nairobi, a model institution emphasizing STEM education for marginalized girls. Recent studies show her mobile education model has been replicated in 12 African countries, impacting over 200,000 learners. Shollei's approach combined cultural sensitivity with technological innovation, proving that education equity could be achieved even in the most challenging environments.