End of 8-4-4 on course, Uhuru says

The shift from 8-4-4- system to the new education structure is on course, despite the challenges of rolling out the new curriculum, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.

In his State of the Nation Address, Kenyatta said reforms in the education system remain core to his administrations goals.

“I assure this distinguished sitting that the journey to replace the 8-4-4 system with the new fit-for-purpose curricula, is well underway,” Uhuru said.

He said the bottlenecks of the roll-out of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) under the 2–6–3–3–3 are being addressed.

Uhuru said the rollout of the CBC has been successful, though with challenges.

“It has nevertheless been fully embraced by all stakeholders in the education sector…and refinements are being undertaken in the course of implementation,” said the Head of State.

Under the new education system, learners will spend two years in pre-primary education, six years in primary schools, three years in junior secondary school and another three years in senior secondary school.

This means that the present Grade Four learners under the CBC are expected to exit primary education in 2022, and to join Junior Secondary Schools in 2023.

During the same year learners in the present Standard Six under the 2–6–3–3–3 education system will sit KCPE examinations and get admitted to Form One in 2023.

Transition headache has posed serious challenges with infrastructure and logistical setbacks expected.

Kenyatta, however, said one of the quick gains was the achievement of a textbook to pupil ratio of 1:1 for grades 1 through to 3.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said the CBC task force he set up will wind up their tasks next month with far reaching recommendations.

“A major achievement of the task force so far has been collection of enrollment and infrastructure data from all public and private learning institutions in Kenya,” said Magoha. The CS said the ministry has continued to implement phased roll out of CBC to Grade 4.