No proper reform in the education sector without targeted engagement

It was heart-warming when Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed got into office and one of the first things she started facilitating was on “National Dialogue on Education Quality and Learning Outcomes in Kenya”.

The forums held in counties across the nation should remain a wake-up call that more needs to be done.

What needs to happen next is isolating key reform drivers and developing engagement points for the multiplicity of voices in the sector – everybody, every household needs to be brought on board MV Education Reform.

The academia needs to understand the philosophy underpinning the ongoing reform.

STUDENTS

Questions abound out here: Are we changing the system or the curriculum? What is the difference anyway?

How are our local universities through the education faculties and schools involved in the entirety of this process?

Are our doctorate and masters students documenting this for posterity?

It is a foregone conclusion that we need national dialogue on education.

The trajectory the sector takes in the next few months shall be a good enough indicator for our development aspirations.

REFORMS

For this to happen to good effect; we need to engage industry and succinctly address its crystal fears about the quality of graduates our education system is currently producing and jointly craft a joint remedy not just for one player but for the future, not just for jobs that exist currently, but for the innumerable possibilities the future offers.

As a nation, it is an opportune time for us to interrogate the World Development Report 2018 - “Learning –to realise education’s promise” the first ever world development report dedicated to education.

The report details, among other things, that: the learning outcomes are poor, there still exists high inequality, and we are making very slow progress.

This report is worth not only our time but the country’s leadership needs to understand that the shortest route towards fixing this country lies in fixing education – once and for all.

DEBATE
Another issue we need to confront before it is too late is framing issues.

We have not been sincere and pragmatic while framing issues that have the greatest effect on the lives of the current crop of learners and generations to come.

Educationists and the bigger academia must stand up and take its rightful place on the table.

Politicians and political surrogates are framing education issues and the singularity of purpose needed for investment, policy and practice is lost in the cacophony of daily politicking.

As a country, we need to sit on a roundtable and agree that we are not able to offer Free Primary Education (FPE) – the hidden costs negate this type of framing.

We cannot, therefore, follow it up in quick succession with Free Secondary Education (FSE).

STAKEHOLDERS

We need to agree further that the government through the ministry of Education shall be offering extended subsidies for that matter and or tuition subsidy for these levels of education.

This should be followed by a robust parent/guardian or caregiver engagement framework spelling out roles and responsibilities for purposes of realising the education dream for our children.

As matters stand, many parents do not know what is required of them under the new dispensation other than signing their children’s diaries and helping the children with homework – if at all they do help.

The sector needs to develop a framework for managing teachers’ welfare, salary and professional growth needs.

Threats, counter-threats, strikes and ultimatums introduce volatility and uncertainty that is not good for a nation that is preparing to take-off on a serious development trajectory.

GRADUATES
The education sector also needs to draw up an engagement framework with industry players who have been complaining of half-baked graduates for the last decades.

Questions must be asked as to what the industry requires and what investment it is making to obtain that refined graduate other than Christmas and end-year photo moments in an education institution as part of their routine corporate social responsibility.

For the sector to realise genuine and sustainable reforms; hard questions have to be asked.

All these sector frameworks aggregated can realise a composite accountability framework for education in Kenya that shall help to directly and indirectly manage the budgetary allocation that are allocated to the ministry of education in a seamless manner.

The writer is an Education and Public Policy Expert. [email protected]