Education reforms and medics strike key 2017 aspects

Kenyans usher in the new year with two daunting challenges to confront including the biting doctors’ strike and the ongoing reforms in the education sector.
On Saturday, the doctors union announced that it would continue with the strike until its demands are met by the national and county governments.

Separately, Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang declared that schools are ready to re-open for the first term on Wednesday despite anxiety about the fate of thousands of pupils whose schools’ licences were revoked for breaching the government ban on holiday tuition.

Dr Kipsang said schools that had their registration certificates revoked for conducting holiday tuition had been given an opportunity to undergo fresh registrations.

“The schools are going through the due process for private schools while in public schools an administrative action will be taken,” said the Principal Secretary.

In November, the government suspended the registration certificate of Happyland Preparatory School in Nairobi’s Harambee estate after the school was found conducting holiday tuition.

And in Kisumu, several teachers were arrested at MA Junior and St Anne’s Ahero Primary School for conducting holiday tuition with the government threatening to revoke the licences of the affected institutions.

And speaking in Mombasa, officials of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPPDU) led by Secretary General Ouma Oluga demanded that the government meets their demands, including improvement of public health, training of more specialist doctors, research fund, and internship programmes which will protect intern doctors from ethnicity before they call off the strike.

They urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to initiate dialogue with them so that they end the 28 days strike. “President Kenyatta, listen to doctors. We are very honest; we are willing and available for negotiations and talks,” said Dr Oluga during a meeting of more than 100 doctors from six counties in Coast region at Mbaraki Sports Club.

The opening of schools on Wednesday comes against the backdrop of shocking results in last year’s Form Four examination that saw the number of candidates who scored straight As dropping to 141 only as opposed to 2,685 in 2015.

Top of the agenda this term will be the unveiling of a new curriculum scheduled for early this month and which is expected to replace the 8-4-4 system, which has been in existence for the past three decades.

ANNOUNCED CRACKDOWN

It is also the year the government is expected to implement the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that teachers unions signed with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

Form One students are also expected to report to school between January 9 and January 16, departing from past practice when they used to report from early February.

The government has since announced a crackdown on schools that charge higher fees than the ones set by the ministry.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has also vowed to fight corruption in schools, mainly perpetuated by school heads.

“We have received a report from the Competition Authority of Kenya on this issue and we will act. We have a case in Nakuru County where a school has directed parents to buy a mattress at Sh3,000 in a specific shop yet the same mattress goes for Sh1,900 in other shops. This is unacceptable,” said Dr Matiang’i.

On curriculum review, a major national conference will decide which way to go for the education sector.

Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) report indicates that the new system has been organised into three levels: Early Years Education, Middle School Education and Senior School.

The Nation has learned that one of the options the conference is likely to be presented with is from a 2012 report of a task force chaired by Prof Douglas Odhiambo, which proposed the scrapping of the 8-4-4 system of education.

Instead, it recommended a 2-6-3-3-3 system, which it says would ensure learners acquire competencies and skills to meet the human resource aspirations of Vision 2030.

The 8-4-4 system has been widely criticised for being expansive, heavily loaded in terms of content and too examinations-oriented, which, combined, put undue pressure on the learners. The system has been in existence since 1985.

REDUCE WORKLOAD

KICD Director Julius Jwan says the proposed curriculum will reduce workload and modify the organisation of learning.

Dr Jwan adds that the new curriculum makes learners identify with the foundation of the nation as a democratic nation.

“This curriculum will reduce the load and seek to modify the organisation of learning and make the learners identify with the democratic foundation of this nation, something that the current curriculum does not address,” adds Dr Jwan.

This term, the government is also expected to release schools unrest report that was commissioned by the Ministry of Education in July.

The eight-member special investigation panel of security experts and educationists was supposed to hand over its report   in September.

The team, led by career provincial administrator Claire Omolo, was to probe the unrest that led to destruction of dormitories at more than 120 schools in the second term.

On the ongoing doctors’ strike which has paralysed operations in most public hospitals, leading to deaths and misery, the doctors dispelled rumours that they were unwilling to engage in dialogue to resolve the stalemate and return to work.

He said the union had attended over six meetings with officials from the Health and Labour ministries with a view to reaching an agreement.

Dr Oluga said the union’s position has been very clear, that they want the government to present an implementation plan that can be discussed on the CBA. The union wants the CBA to be implemented in arrears as from 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

“We did not ask for 300 per cent increment of salaries, that’s a myth and propaganda from the government. Doctors issued a strike notice on November 14, 2016. The strike had one demand, implementation of the CBA. It had a pay proposal that had consensus and there was nothing like 300 per cent rise,” he said.

Additional reporting by Justus Ochieng