The emerging consensus among key education sector players on how to implement the new education curriculum is encouraging.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers and the publishers who had earlier expressed reservations about some aspects of the Ministry of Education’s rollout plan on Wednesday declared their backing for the curriculum reforms expected to make the education system friendly to learners and align it to the country’s human resource needs.
Perhaps an important lesson learnt here is that the policymakers should have consulted widely to avoid the kind of controversial decisions that have recently poisoned the public debate on the reforms.
The consensus paves the way for a non-acrimonious the phasing out of the old 8-4-4 system and the introduction of the new 2-6-6-3, whose second stage of trial will see the teaching of the new syllabus in Grades 1 and 2 beginning this month.
Just as important, the Ministry of Education must address the legitimate concerns raised about the training of teachers and availability of training materials to facilitate a smooth implementation of the curriculum.
Schools will also need to be better funded and equipped to avoid the pitfalls that so often derailed the 8-4-4 system of education.
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