Reforms seek to improve education

Varying comments have greeted the curriculum reform initiative the Government launched at KICC two weeks ago.

Some critics have argued that the current curriculum has produced some of the best minds that now serve this country, first-rate academicians, entrepreneurs and employees both at home and abroad.

Changing it implies that the Government is in effect condemning a system of education which is efficient and effective, they argue.

Others have alternatively argued that it is the implementation of the 8-4-4 system that is to blame for whatever deficiencies we have in the educational outcomes of those who have passed through the system.

The Government is in the process of reforming the curriculum to make it more relevant to a changing environment and not because the 8-4-4 system  is weak.

That is the assurance the Cabinet Secretary of Education, Fred Matiang’i, gave when asked by Al Jazeera TV in his office last week, whether 8-4-4 is so dysfunctional as to warrant reform.

The Government is set on reforming the curriculum not because the curriculum is bad, but because it wants it to be consistent with the changing environment that the children will meet upon leaving school at any stage of the education cycle.

Changes in educational technology and new understandings about learning and how best to facilitate learning among children are creating the need for new approaches to teaching.

Aside from this, new technologies are making information available as never before.

New technology provides an opportunity for exciting potential to enrich learning – to create a level playing field which makes it possible for every child to access quality and affordable education regardless of his or her socio-economic background.

A new instructional approach is therefore called for on the part of the teacher.

It is all these changes and many others that have made it necessary for Government to relook at the curriculum.

Although the current curriculum has much strength, a significant proportion of young people are not achieving all that they are capable of.

Even though the current curriculum has produced some of the brightest minds who now are helping public and private enterprises to function, a significant number of students leave formal schooling, including our institutions of higher learning, without critical skills appropriate to the level at which they left formal education and training.

We consequently need a curriculum which will enable all young people to understand the world they are living in, reach the highest possible levels of achievement, and equip them for work and learning throughout their lives.

We want learners in basic education institutions to be able to read and write and numerate effectively.

These are the foundational skills on which all other learning is built upon.

We need literacy and numeracy in the early grades strengthened.

The Government is already in the initial stages of laying down the infrastructure of early-grade literacy and mathematics in standard one and two.

Literacy and numeracy is not enough in this day and age.

The learners ought to have the ability to think, reason, solve problems and navigate the world with minimal or no supervision.

To develop all these abilities, a rich, strong, and balanced curriculum is needed.

A curriculum that will embody the link between knowledge and critical thinking, which leading experts in education say happens in school, as students are taught to read, talk and write on the various projects and assignments teachers give them.

The current curriculum exalts academic abilities to the exclusion of other abilities and inclinations available as career options or paths for those with appropriate abilities, talents and interests.

The proposed curriculum envisages three pathways for growth and development: academic, vocational/technical and talent path.

The curriculum will be flexible.

It will seek to identify and develop the potential of every learner: this will help learners make informed decisions as to which career path they want to take, given the fact that the curriculum will have helped them know their strengths and weakness.

The overall principle or goal of the curriculum reform is to raise and sustain the highest possible standards of excellence in education.

We want to strengthens the capacities of children to learn.