Ominde team lays ground work for radical changes in education

Part of the assignment for Prof Ominde was to make Kenya’s education reflect African socialism and the aspirations of African culture. The Ominde Commission laid the very foundations on whose Kenya education system exists today. PHOTO|FILE

What you need to know:

  • Ominde was to recommend a system that would accelerate rapid creation of manpower to take over from the whites.
  • Prof Ominde was given a crash programme to produce the Report in the shortest time possible.
  • Ominde’s 7:6:3 education system served the purpose for the next decade until mid-70s.
  • The Ominde Commission laid the very foundations on whose Kenya education system exists today.

There was once a Standard Eight class in Primary school long before President Moi’s 8:4:4 system of education.

At independence, founding President Jomo Kenyatta appointed a Commission headed by Prof Simeon Ominde of the then University College, Nairobi.

His task was to review the country’s education to transit from colonialism to an independent African State.

Part of the assignment was to make Kenya’s education reflect African socialism and the aspirations of African culture.

Still, Ominde was to remove the racial undertones that were remaining from the colonial era.

Then, Ominde was to recommend a system that would accelerate rapid creation of manpower to take over from the whites.

Kenya did not have an independent University at the time as the Nairobi College, former Royal College was part of the University of East Africa grouping of Dar es salaam and Makerere.

CRASH PROGRAMME

Neither did the emerging country have tertiary institutions to provide middle level manpower.

Prof Ominde was given a crash programme to produce the Report in the shortest time possible.

Indeed, the team was appointed in January and gave Kenyatta the report in December 1964.

The Commission began with severe criticism of the Kenya Preliminary Examination done at Primary Standard Eight.

Just at the dawn of independence examinations were along racial lines, KPE being called Kenya African Primary Examination – KAPE.

The criticism was that as a final test for majority of Kenyan youths, it did not serve the purpose as it was only a gate pass for few leaving many pupils who did not get secondary places as vagabonds.

But the Ominde team decided to retain it with radical changes.

SELECTION PROCESS

Firstly, it was the only test for selection process to various post-primary institutions – Teacher Training Colleges, Form One, Tertiary institutions and polytechnics – at the time.

Secondly, it was the only way a Kenyan youth could get a certificate to show how far he or she had gone in school.

The rider was that in the long run the ministry of education should find a way of testing that accommodates aptitude tests and continuous assessments or report cards as a way of selecting students for post-primary.

“For the moment, there is little that can be done by modifying KPE that will help to lift its examining influence from the primary school.

We must have selection and therefore we must have KPE, and that means the present form of attainment examination until a better procedure can be evolved,” they recommended.

Then, the system of awarding KPE certificates was also criticised.

Good certificates were only given to those who “passed” KPE.

'FAILED' PAPERS

But there were papers called “Failed” which were given to those who did not pass.

Ominde recommended that there must be a paper to show that someone reached end of primary.

In 1967, all primary leavers were given KPE certificates.

This was after the phasing out of Standard Eight in 1965 when the class did the same examination with Standard Seven.

Ominde also recommended Kenya Preliminary should change to Kenya Primary Examination (KPE) and eventually Certificate of Primary Education (CPE).

But the drastic part was the system of education the team recommended to reflect the country’s immediate needs for manpower.

It was the Ominde Commission which eliminated the colonial Standard Eight class reducing primary school to seven years.

For good reasons that there was shortage of teachers in primary schools and by extension in secondary schools.

The one year reduction was a crash programme to get pupils graduating at Standard Seven get to TTCs to train as P3 teachers.

This was aimed at boosting teachers’ manpower especially in ASAL areas.

Then, the same graduates would enter into polytechnics to train and provide middle-level cadres for engineers.

By the same token, the cut by one year would have corresponding advantage at Form Four.

Those who failed to get places in the limited Higher Level of Form Five would train as Senior 1 (S1) teachers for secondary, P1 and P2 for primary schools to uplift the standards.

FILL GAP

The S1 teachers were a crash programme to fill the gap of departing expatriate teachers besides the few African graduates coming out of Makerere.

The benefit of the one year also extended to university which retained a three year programme for most degrees other than Architecture and Medicine which had five years.

Ominde’s 7:6:3 education system served the purpose for the next decade until mid-70s when it was felt that another system should be considered.

But the International Labour Organisation, through donors got concerned about the country’s education.

ILO set about to review the system and gave a report in 1972.

Among other things, ILO recommended the scrapping CPE.

They recommended that it did not reflect proper testing of a young pupil at the age of 13 or 14 years.

Their recommendation was that Kenya should find another system domiciled locally to test pupils after Standard 8 or 9.

Other areas Ominde touched was to harmonise schools that existed on either racial, class or religious lines to reflect the spirit of independence.

AFRICAN NAMES

Schools hitherto referred to Government African or Asian were simply called by their names without the racial tug.

The schools that had been named European names or British Royalty were given African names – like Lenana, Nairobi and Jamhuri schools.

Thus the Ominde Commission laid the very foundations on whose Kenya education system exists today.