Let's clear uncertainties in education in the New Year

 

Parents shopping for books at a Nyeri Bookshop ahead of school reopening on January 3, 2025. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

In the last 60 years, Kenya has changed its education system twice.

First, it was “A” level, then 8-4-4, and now the competency-based curriculum (CBC). Our neighbouring countries - Uganda and Tanzania - have not changed their respective systems.

Some could argue this demonstrates our dynamism. Others suggest our leaders are obsessed with legacy, and such changes are their legacy footprints.

We could add other legacies like the 2010 Constitution and projects like the Thika Superhighway and the Nairobi Expressway.

The ultimate test of any change is whether ordinary citizens benefit. In education, we could ask if graduates at any level from primary to university exhibit certain characteristics. 

Are they more confident to manage their lives by living harmoniously with self, society, and nature? 

Are they more open to new ideas that can improve themselves and society? Do they have marketable skills like Indians and computer science? 

Are the skills good enough for self-reliance? Can they start and narture enterprises? Can they make something, fix something or add value to something? 

I wish we did tracer studies by following cohorts of graduates at all levels to discover how education empowered them to live more fulfilling lives. What could be their regrets? What would they like changed in school?

Ostensibly, we changed the education system to make it better. Have we compared “A” level and 8-4-4 graduates in politics, workplaces, entrepreneurship and self-fulfilment? 

I have repeatedly argued the system does not matter, it is the skills, attitudes, knowledge and confidence that our graduates take home or to the market that matter most.  The constant changes have created a lot of uncertainties. Think of brothers or sisters belonging to different education systems. What of employers? How do they evaluate the new system? Think of students applying to study abroad. Did it surprise you that some parents ensured their children escaped CBC by enrolling them underage under 8-4-4? Does it worry you that the middle and upper classes are willing to pay a premium to take their children through more certain international systems like IBB or IGCSE?

The majority of Kenyans are stuck with whichever system is prescribed by the government. Does it worry you that instead of closing class fissures, education is widening them? 

The education your child gets matters even more than the constitution. It is lifelong and the child can’t return to school for “correction.”  

I suggest that any change in our education system should go through a referendum; it should not be left to the whims of politicians. Back to uncertainties. We started with where junior high school should be domiciled. It was placed in primary school and the schools were renamed “comprehensive.” 

That created a new uncertainty; how do you mix primary school and secondary school children and teachers?

We are used to the separation of the two. How does the primary school head teacher manage “superior” junior high school teachers?

The greater uncertainty is what will happen after junior high school. Will there be a national exam, something like the defunct Kenya Junior Secondary Exam (KJSE)? Will the students select the high schools to join after junior high school? It seems so, depending on their career pathways and grades.

Will all senior secondary schools be national or the categorisation will remain? Is this not a level in another name?  Shall we not have gone full circle? Other uncertainties hang over CBC. One is the extent to which the content is different from 8-4-4.

Is it just redistribution across primary, junior, and senior schools? Two, have we updated the content to reflect the most recent developments in science, technology and social sciences? Are there exoplanets in addition to the solar system? 

Is there nano-technology and quantum computing? Is there a topic on Covid-19 and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)? How many Nobel Prize winners are quoted in the new curriculum? Is Zinjanthropus still there?  Three, how is CBC synchronised with the university? 

The students will take one less year at university. Will they cover less with some work devolved to senior secondary school, or will four years be compressed into three? 

There is also the question of how shall we fund CBC. The skills in CBC need more resources.

Junior high school should be the years of discovery, exposing the student to as many subjects as possible.

How else do they know their competence? How many schools offer music, foreign languages, sports, drama or fine art? 

What is the cost of educating a student in senior secondary, at the university under CBC? Who will fund that? With the controversy surrounding the university funding model ending up in court, we need funding certainty.

There is also uncertainty about when national exam results will be released. By its nature, education ought to make our lives more certain and fulfilling. Why should we allow it to be plagued by uncertainty? 

On a more solemn note, last year I lost two of my former teachers. One of them, Mr Joseph Wambugu Kiragu, taught me in Class Three and collaboratively with parents made us learn lots of proverbs and the wisdom they espoused long before CBC.

Mrs Sudesh Bala Shah (1950—2024), on the other hand, taught me physics in high school long before women empowerment was fashionable.

May both Rest in Peace.