This is our best chance to resolve education crises

Diana Bosibori, a Form Four student at Enkinda Secondary School in Nyamira studies at their home. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

It is a fact that Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected education in Kenya as indeed, in the rest of the world. No need to belabour the question of how so, because it is common knowledge.

What is not featuring in the ongoing discourse, is the opportunities this crisis offers Kenya to sort out long standing, simmering crises in the basic education sector.

Three potential crises stand out for their closeness to implosion, but continue to receive inadequate attention. Let me start by highlighting three crises that have not received the attention they deserve.

First is the congestion in our secondary schools. Since 2019 the government has implemented the globally acclaimed 100 per cent transition to secondary school policy. Investment in the requisite infrastructure and personnel, however, continues to lag behind.

Indeed, government spending on education as a percentage of total government expenditure has been on a steady decline from 21.3 per cent in the 2013/2014 fiscal year to 14.5 per cent in the 2018/2019 fiscal year. This has heralded a level of congestion in public secondary schools that threatens the safety of learners and teachers, besides being inimical to the very objective of schooling. Things can only get worse moving into the third and fourth years of 100 per cent transition, in a macro-economic environment that constrains the necessary, but resource-intensive expansion.

The second simmering crisis is the gravest of them all. It is rooted in the fact that we are already implementing the new curriculum up to grade four, which means that in three years, we need to start phasing out the 8-4-4 system. This will require double intakes into secondary schools in 2024 and 2025, to eliminate classes seven and eight. Given the current congestion and understaffing in schools, and the funding trajectory that doesn’t support their expansion, it is dreadful to imagine what looms over the secondary school sub-sector in the country.

Entrench inequalities

The third simmering crisis is the widening digital divide coupled with a failed ICT integration in education policy. This policy has underpinned implementation of supply, rather than demand-driven interventions since 2013.

Consequently, resources have been expended on projects that are misaligned with the realities of most school-going children, their teachers and parents/guardians. The widening geographic and socio-economic factors-based digital divide, if unchecked, will entrench inequalities in learning outcomes and undermine national aspirations, most of which are hinged on quality education as the Covid-19 crisis has shown.

So, what opportunities are available to forestall the aforementioned simmering crises in the education sector?

First, it has helped to turn the spotlight on the inequities in the education system and highlighted the policy, practice and investment gaps that underpin them. It has opened the opportunity to reflect on and narrow these gaps, and streamline investments in the sector to optimise impact.

With regards to the congestion in secondary schools and the impending potentially calamitous phasing out of the 8-4-4 system, this crisis offers two silver bullets: first, is the opportunity to change the school calendar year, which we must not miss.

After losing two out of three school terms, cancelling the remainder of the school year may be the right thing to do, but it is not the most strategic. This option is fraught with many challenges, some with enduring adverse effects.

Some of the questions that arise from taking this option include: for instance, will parents pay fees again for first term which they had already paid? If not, how will private schools that rely on fees to fund their operations run? Will Kenya change school entry age, and thus deviate from East African Community-harmonized age of 6 years for entry into grade one? What happens to children who attain the age to join pre-primary one (PP1) this year? Will Kenya have a double intake into PP1 next year?

Changing the school year start date to September is an opportunity in the Covid-19 crisis with clear benefits.

First, it will enable Kenya to deal with the current crisis in ways that forestall its potentially enduring adverse effects. It means that schools reopen in January 2021 for second term, finish the year in July and learners proceed to the new school year in September 2021.

With this clarity, home-schooling can proceed with teachers and parents supporting children to revise their first term work in preparation for second term come January 2021.

Secondly, that will enable the country to harmonize school year calendars for the various levels of our education system – colleges/universities and international schools in the country have their school years beginning in September.

The switch will cut the time lost during transition from secondary school to college and smooth the transition from one system of education to the other whenever need arises.

Thirdly, it will align school years to the lives of governments, which constitutionally, begin in August, every five years and fiscal years thereby enhancing the ability of the government of the day to deliver on its education agenda. In the event of a protracted election, it ensures that electioneering doesn’t interfere with preparations for national examinations.

Finally, it will resolve the simmering questions about fees and learners’ school entry age, as well as restore the morale of learners, who are demoralized by the idea of restarting their school year.

The second silver bullet is the opportunity to stagger school attendance and pre-empt the cataclysmic congestion anticipated in 2024. I suggest immediate reopening of schools for form four students only, and have them sit KCSE in January 2021 before schools reopen for other learners.

There will be enough space and teachers in schools to enable social distancing. In the immediate term, this minimises congestion as schools endeavour to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the longer term, it will ensure that there is space for one extra cohort as we head to the first double intake in September 2023 and allow government time to plan for the second double intake in September 2024.

 - Dr Manyasa is Executive Director, Usawa Agenda