Why the new education system to be launched in May could be a wild goose chase

Starting with second term 2017 a new system of education will be pilot-rolled across all counties in sampled schools. The change is motivated by real and perceived shortcomings of the 30-year-old 8-4-4 system.

It is widely perceived that the 8-4-4 system is exam oriented. What many forget is it was not designed to be so. The political, financial and human resource climate never allowed the 8-4-4 to go the way it was supposed to. Just like the new system it was meant to identify specific affinities and talents of the learners and place them into a path that would allow them to optimise on learning and training opportunities.

There were those destined for the Performing Arts, the Humanities, STEM, Vocational careers etc. There were only two exam stages KCPE and KCSE yet the new system recommends a series of Continuous Assessment Tests administered by KNEC. If KNEC has been having an uphill task with two exams how are they going to synchronise and coordinate a system that runs in all schools all the time? Except for the fact that the new system takes advantage of ICT and innovative technologies there is a difference between the two systems.

The reasons for the failure of the 8-4-4 are numerous but I will highlight only a few:

One: Lack of political will in ensuring equitable financing of infrastructure and training across the width and breadth of Kenya. The result was that millions of learners were unable to access quality education.

Two: Inadequate basic training for pre-service teachers and absent or haphazard professional development of in-service staff.

Three: Absence of professional associations catering to individual subject area themes.

Four: Inadequate public participation in matters education.

Five: Theft and pilferage of teaching and learning materials.

Six: Unprofessional conduct by Boards of Management and Parents Teachers Associations.

Seven: Political interferences in the education process.

It is some of these impediments that made implementation of 8-4-4 so difficult. There is no evidence that things will have changed by the time the new system is in full swing. I recall that in the early days of the 8-4-4 subjects such as Home Science, Carpentry and Music were to have been taught in all schools. What happened? The BOMs and PTAs objected on the grounds there were no adequate funds to cater for kitchen appliances, carpentry workshops and musical instruments. True, these are expensive, but I also recall that in those days a used upright piano was going for a mere KSh 50,000 in Nairobi where expatriates were selling their household goods as they moved to greener pastures in Botswana, Lesotho, and as far afield as Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. A well-cared for piano can last from 60 to 100 years.

Instead these wise men and women passed resolutions to buy buses going for more than 1 million shillings at the time! And what were such buses for? Carrying a couple of bags of sugar, rice, beans and flour twice a term from the nearest town 50 km away, a task which could have been handled by putting the goods in a box matatu for 1% of the cost of using the bus! And this habit has not stopped. Most secondary schools have been collecting bus levies from parents for up to 25 years at a stretch yet there is only an ugly wreck with an old Bedford-lorry engine, pretending to be a bus, at their garages.

Even worse, these days they go for Sh10,000,000 plus luxury buses which are then hired out to wedding parties with no benefit to the learners. And this sickness and craze goes all the way to university in one way or another. It is not uncommon these days to have 1000 first year students take turns in batches of 100 to do laboratory practicals in basic sciences using equipment and space meant for 20 students. And we keep blaming 8-4-4. Or a class of 500 trying to crowd into a room meant for 120 and listen to a lecturer they can’t hear and write stuff they can’t see. A power point projection is equally bad as 380 of the students are standing outside all trying to crane their pained necks through stamp-sized windows.

And we think the 2-6-3-3-3 will be the magic bullet instead of the wild goose chase it actually is!