Stakeholders question preparedness for new education system

Education stakeholders are now questioning the preparedness of the country to implement a new education system that was approved on Monday and which many agree was long overdue.

More than 290,000 teachers will need to be trained, syllabuses developed, teaching and learning materials prepared before it is tried.

All these have financial costs which have to be concluded and presented to Treasury for approval.

Students will pursue games, performing and visual arts while social science options will be languages and literature, humanities and business studies. The third option will have pure and applied sciences, engineering and technical studies.

The stakeholders argue that all these require massive investment in terms of teachers and facilities. There are also concerns that the subjects are still too many, with some such as woodwork being described as "irrelevant".

They were speaking at the National Conference on Curriculum Reforms at Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi on Monday. The event was hosted by Kenya Institute of Curriculum development.

According to the institute, the new system will determine a learner’s capacity to apply knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform tasks.

It is known as “competency-based assessment”.

The new system has three levels: early, middle and senior schools.

The focus is on continuous assessment tests as opposed to final exams that defines the 8-4-4, introduced in 1985.

Mutheu Kasanga, the chairman of the Kenya Private Schools Association, asked where the government would get teachers to teach woodwork.

'COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION'

Dr John Mugo, a director at Uwezo Kenya, an education think tank, told the Nation in an interview: “We must look at how to change the attitude of teachers so that they can offer competency-based education rather than the current cramming and reproducing”.

David Waweru, director of the Kenya Publishers Association, said there publishers need sufficient time to produce good books.

Nancy Macharia, the chief executive officer of the Teachers Service Commission, said they will be at the forefront in implementing the new curriculum.

Fred Matiang’i, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Technology, said: “Public interest in education is great and legitimate. We need to develop a world-class education system to give us a chance to become one of the highly-skilled, highly-educated societies that takes advantage of the new order”.

He went on: “The world over, education systems are continuously responding to societal needs for quality and relevant education, quality teaching, learning and assessment for measurable learning outcomes at all levels. At this point in our history, we are all agreed that reforming the basic education curriculum is an important tool for socio-economic engineering in Kenya”.

The current 8-4-4 system which was introduced in 1985 focuses on education for self-reliance and has been criticised for being examination oriented and failing to identify and nurture young people’s talent and interests in preparation for the world of work.

Wilson Sossion, the secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers, said that because of the timing and schedule, it will be hard to train teachers.