Why media literacy should be included in new curriculum

A glaring omission in the proposed basic education curriculum framework, which was presented to stakeholders for validation last month, is the place of media and information literacy for Kenyan students.

This is strange given that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development works closely with UNESCO, which has dedicated substantial resources and research over the years and recommended that curricula the world over adopt media and information literacy (MIL) as an inalienable competence for quality existence in the 21st century knowledge societies.

Media and information literacy is a set of competencies that empowers citizens to access, retrieve, understand, evaluate and use, create, as well as share information and media content in all formats, using various tools, in a critical, ethical and effective way. More broadly, it is a basis for enhancing access to information, knowledge, expression and quality education.

Implementation of MIL initiatives will help create a media literate population with capacity and skills for access to quality information citizens need to make informed decisions within the new (digital) media environment. The MIL will also equip citizens with skills to participate actively in governance and community development as well as take advantage of the opportunities generated by the information age.

EDUCATE STUDENTS

Aside from the Digital Literacy Programme by Education and ICT ministries, other MIL initiatives include the media literacy public talk-shops organised by the Media Council of Kenya and the Kenya Film Classification Board’s school programme dubbed ‘You Are What You Consume’ to educate students on film and media content safety as well as responsible Internet use.

There cannot exist a better way to augment these disparate initiatives than integrating MIL into the new curriculum.
It’s noteworthy, however that the envisaged core competencies in the new curriculum as recommended by the 2015 report ‘Reforming Education and Training in Kenya’ are in congruence with MIL outcomes. The curriculum developer may at this point want to adopt and contextualise for Kenyan children the UNESCO model by expanding the now popular Digital Literacy Programme to include related literacies such as media literacy (advertising, news, TV and cinema) and information literacy. Ways must also be found to train teachers in MIL.

This will, however, be difficult to implement given the current policy and strategy vacuum on media and information literacy. There is, therefore, an urgent need to draft a national media and information literacy policy and strategy for Kenya. However, if adopted, Kenya will join about 70 countries implementing MIL.