Moi says 8-4-4 one of Kenya's many success stories

Former President Daniel arap Moi on Sunday opposed plans to scrap the 8-4-4 education system.

Speaking during a thanksgiving service at Sunshine School in Nairobi, Mr Moi said the education system was introduced after “thorough research and analysis” to produce from Kenyan classrooms scholars “that fit in the international academic arena”.

“I am one person who has been very keen in following how Kenyan students cope academically and professionally, both in the Kenyan job market and abroad,” Mr Moi said.

“I’m very happy that the products from our schools are exemplary and can fit in any environment in America, Britain, Japan, Korea, and other technological powerhouses of the world today.”

Mr Moi said many of the students, who have gone through the system have been admitted to leading universities in the world, where they have excelled and secured opportunities in the international job market.

“If our students, products of the 8-4-4 system, are excelling in the cream technology and banking organisations we know of in the modern world, who is this telling us that we got it wrong?” he posed.

“The success of the students we mentored in our schools is an affirmation that 8-4-4 has worked well.”

He said the system was just one of the many success stories coming from Kenya, and has had an impact in the rest of the world, adding that the proposed review of the system should aim to start from where 8-4-4 has reached.

“It should not try to reverse the clock and try to reconstruct history,” he cautioned. “I am noticing a kind of panic mode and waste to introduce a new system of education without regard to the preparedness of the economy to shoulder the financial elements of this task.”