Publishers work on errors in textbooks
Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Director Julius Jwan distributes mathematics textbooks to Class Three pupils of MM Shah Primary School, Kisumu, on January 19, 2018. Some of the books have errors. PHOTO | ONDARI OGEGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Dr Kipsang warned teachers and school heads against absenteeism and laziness.
- Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said the system had shifted from access to quality and relevant education.
The Ministry of Education on Thursday sought to assure the public that textbooks supplied to schools are of good quality and that the errors noticed in some of them are being corrected.
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said the Sh7.5 billion textbook project is on course and that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development is addressing the errors.
“We encourage our publishers to continue to improve the quality of the content in our free textbooks distributed to both primary and secondary schools,” Dr Kipsang said at Maasai Mara University during a meeting to discuss the quality of education.
Teachers’ unions have demanded that the books be withdrawn because of the shortcomings, which include wrong examples in languages, incorrect calculations in mathematics, shallow content and omissions, especially in Kiswahili.
The curriculum institute and publishers have owned up to the errors and pledged to have them corrected.
EXAM RESULTS
Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, who also spoke at the event, said the system had shifted from access to quality and relevant education.
She said she is concerned about the poor examination results across the school system, adding that Kenya’s learners should be positioned alongside top performers such as Finland, which is consistently ranked as the best country on the Programme for International Student Assessment.
The CS said that enrolment in Early Childhood Education had risen from 2.9 million in 2013 to 3.2 million in 2016.
Enrolment in primary and secondary schools had increased from 9.9 million to 10.1 million, and 2.1 million to 2.6 million, respectively, within the same period, she said.
“The question we must answer is how to move our education to the next level to ensure our students are learning and that proper teaching is taking place in our schools,” she said.
Dr Kipsang warned teachers and school heads against absenteeism and laziness.
