Without a thoroughroll out, we run the risk of soon blaming the new system, just as we currently do for the 8-4-4 system.
As a parent with children in primary school, I looked forward to the commencement of the new education curriculum this month.
Not so much because I was completely dissatisfied with the current, 8-4-4 system. In fact, having been a product of the system I held and continue to hold the firm view that some criticisms of the system were uninformed, and others were about transferring the blame for the malaise in our education system to those responsible for its implementation.
My excitement revolved around the improvements that the changes promised. For starters the promise that there would be more focus on talent identification and development. In addition, my son would get more time to be a child without the overcrowded nature that characterises the current system.
Consequently, when in November last year I was informed that the book list for the new system would be ready in a few weeks I was not worried. However, my anxiety started a few weeks later when I went to purchase stationery for his elder sister.
On casual inquiry at the bookshop on when the textbooks for the new curriculum would be ready I was told was that some of the teachers were just being inducted on the new curriculum at the start of December.
When the new year began I sought to purchase books for my son. However, the school did not have any further information. They too were waiting for directions. It was not a surprise when a few days later the Education secretary announced that the launch of the system would be delayed by a further year. In its place the pilot process in select schools across the country would continue.
Close to one month since that announcement, some schools still do not have the requisite textbooks for the pilot process. Children and teachers in these schools spent the first few weeks hopeful that they would get books and settle down to learning. They are still waiting.
The events of this past weeks raise several fundamental issues about the process of rolling out the new curriculum. First, we must ask what the hurry is that we cannot deal with the basics first before rolling out the system.
Unless our focus is on what a friend of mine used to refer to as smokes and mirrors, we should not jeopardize the future of this country’s children by our lack of adequate planning.
It is not acceptable that children can lose one month waiting for books to be printed. What is the crisis that the new curriculum must be taught to these children in 2018, even when anecdotal evidence points to the fact that the Ministry and country could do with a few more months of preparation.
Secondly, teachers are the centre of the process of implementing the curriculum. We need to be convinced that they are sufficiently socialised to be able to use it to teach children.
This cannot be about a few days rushed induction. It must be a deliberate and structured process. This must involve the institutions that train teachers, both teacher training colleges and universities. Without a thoroughroll out, we run the risk of soon blaming the new system, just as we currently do for the 8-4-4 system.
We will, the painfully realise that the mistake was exacerbated not so much by the design issues, but by the manner and commitment with which we implemented the system. There is need to also learn that the success of any new policy is as much about its content as its implementation process.
Stakeholder involvement is not an inconvenience in the process. It is a necessary interrogation. Not everybody raising concerns about the system is against it.
They are concerned that sufficient information is not being shared while not enough attention is being paid to the challenges that should be dealt with before implementation.
If policy makers were much more accommodative and open in their consultations, the current situation where children lose one month because they are waiting for textbooks to be printed would not have occurred.
The ministry has to ensure that this does not recur in 2019. We have to spend the remaining 11 months developing and sharing a clear road map on the implementation of the new system.
We have to ensure that there are early preparations and that al is ready for the roll out by the time national examinations start this year. This way we will avoid a panic roll-out whose end result is to generate negative sentiments about the set even before people experience it.
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