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Is driver teach-and-test going from bad to worse?

Thursday, October 03, 2024 - 3 min read

Despite the best efforts of major driving schools, the quality of driving instruction and testing is often inadequate.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Columnist

I have yet to meet anyone who has a good thing to say about the standard of our driving tuition and testing. How bad is it? Concerned Parent

Worldwide, driver tuition has become more and more extensive, and testing is more stringent. In Kenya, hearsay suggests the process has been heading in the opposite direction.

The training and inspection of instructors and examiners (and the traffic police!) is not readily available public information.

Given the avalanche of new drivers coming onto the roads over the past 30 years, the results are not good, but we should perhaps be amazed that the traffic situation is not even worse. That affirms the view that a big part of competence comes through “learning by doing”.

Bear in mind, too, that more “universal” private motoring is a relatively new social phenomenon in Kenya, so many candidates for a licence have not spent their entire childhoods watching, hearing and learning in the back seat as have beginners in places where private motoring has been commonplace for many generations…and where training and testing is sophisticated and ever-more stringent.

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Is driver teach-and-test going from bad to worse?

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