Kenya’s new education plan hinges on State funding and teacher recruitment

If education is the key to life, then you need to get the right key. Kenya is set to overhaul its current 8-4-4 education system, which has been criticised by experts for lacking the skills component. It will adopt a new system, the 2-6-3-3-3, which is set to commence in 2018. A lot of emphasis has been placed on the changes which incorporate a pre-primary level, which is silent in the 8-4-4 system.

The 2-6-3-3-3 system has primary education split into two categories: pre-primary and primary, with pre-primary taking two years and primary taking six years. Then students advance to junior secondary school for three years and depending on their abilities and interests, they spend another three years in their areas of specialisation. After the senior secondary stage, students take another three years in a vocational training centre or in university.

Other than the changes in the structure, the proposed system also aims to change the assessment procedures in which students assessment and evaluation will be done through continuous assessment tests to assess students’ skills, competencies, and abilities. This will be a paradigm shift from a focus on standardised national examinations to periodic tests offered by the respective school. The aim is to assess mastery of content at every level over passing of exams, which was largely the aim of the 8-4-4 system.

Different education systems adopt different structures to achieve goals that the various governments have set aside for their citizens. However, although structures ensure that education is delivered effectively as they approximate the education index which is computed by calculating the expected years of schooling, the mechanisms or the goals surrounding the delivery of education determine whether the system will be successful.

To measure the level of education in a country, a composite index of at least 4 goals, depending on data availability is computed. In Africa, most of the ranking in education levels is done by assessing the literacy rates in which the 2013 rankings placed Kenya to be fourth with a literacy rate of 85.10 behind Zimbabwe (90.70), Equatorial Guinea (87.00); and South Africa (86.40).

Globally, the Scandinavian countries have been known to have the best education systems, although recently, in the 2015/2016 ranking, the East Asian countries took the lead as having the best systems. So one would ask, what does it take to have the best education system? The education system of the Finnish is the most studied as one of the best in the world. From studies, successful education systems have the following key characteristics:

First, they place a premium on effort rather than inherited smartness. In Finland, the central objective of education is to provide all its citizens equal opportunities. One of the basic principles is that all people have equal access to high quality education and training. Education aims at maximising the potential of every child. The proposed education system intends to take into consideration individual interests, abilities and talents. Rather than foster the spirit of competition among learners, the system should focus mostly on how learners can use the education process for self-development by identifying one’s talents, abilities, skills so as to progress and maximise their own potential.

Secondly, successful systems have clear learning outcomes and goals. Educational goals refer to statements that describe the competencies, skills, and attributes that students are expected to acquire upon the completion of a course or programme.

The proposed system informs that it will be competency geared, with the aim of education being to evaluate the students’ talents, abilities, interests, and strengths so that they can be channelled to appropriate transition levels. This aims at reducing the number of dropouts, who are not accommodated by the current system. The system has also made attempts into providing a sneak peek into what is expected in the curriculum and the goals of the curriculum at different levels. For instant, in the first two years, it is proposed that the education goal will be to impart life morals and ethics that will mould the child to be a responsible and proud citizen. At this level, life skills will also be imparted.
Thirdly, they have a strong culture of accountability and engagement across a broad community of stakeholders. In best performing education systems, there is a culture of accountability among various stakeholders. For instant, in Finland the teaching profession is so important that only the top of the graduating class are recruited as teachers. The rigorous training , selection process and the high remunerations paid to teachers’ signals to all the stakeholders that education is important, should be invested in, and should be held in high regard. For the proposed system to succeed, it is important that the entire society upholds a culture of accountability at all levels, not just at the school level.

Increased budget

Fourthly, such systems intentionally investment in education. In the best education systems such as South Korea and Finland, governments make huge financial and human investment in education. The Korean government has consistently increased its education budget six times over in the last 20 years. Its education budget accounts for 20 per cent of the budget, which is $29 billion. The government also spends 3.4 per cent of its GDP on formal schooling, hence when private and informal schooling is included, it would account for 10 per cent of the GDP.

The Kenyan government can learn from this country to ensure that the new system succeeds by investing largely in this important sector both in terms of human and financial capital.

Finally, education is everyone’s responsibility. So, all citizens have a responsibility to ensure that our generations get the best education as avenues to successful lives.