Kenya adopts new education system
February 8, 2017
The Kenyan government announced this week that it was replacing the 8-4-4 system of education, which has been in place since 1985, with a new one set for the piloting of a new curriculum which will do away with national examinations.
Seasoned educationist Wachira Kigotho however feels that the air of bravado from the government could be misplaced. According to him, this would be the third time the country was changing its education system. “At independence it inherited the system left behind by the colonialists. A year after independence, the new government appointed a committee that sought to adjust the education set-up to the country’s new status and come up with an education system that would ensure young people leaving schools had a valuable part to play in national life.”
According to Kigotho, this was never achieved and former president Daniel arap Moi had it replaced with the 8-4-4 system, which itself is now being phased out.
To be piloted in May and implemented in January, the new system developed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) will have Early, Middle and Senior schools with focus on continuous assessment tests over summative evaluation.
According to Ministry of Education mandarins, the proposed new system will focus on skills. The new system, endorsed by government officials and key players, emphasises continuous assessment tests rather than one-off final year exams. There will be reviews at various levels of students’ academic life. During the National Conference on Curriculum Reform in Nairobi, most participants agreed the current 8-4-4 system should be done away with even as the country aligns the education system with the developmental needs of the 21st century.
A high school teacher, Joseph Gichohi, says the new system was welcome. “I think there is a missing link in the current education system which needs to be fixed and I think the proposed system addresses this very well,” he said.
Officials from teachers’ unions said the country was not ready for the new curriculum. But government representatives said the new system of education would be launched in four months’ time and that the only challenge was the actual time of piloting and whether there are enough funds to implement it. If adopted, children will spend two years in pre-primary, six years in primary school, three in junior secondary, three in senior secondary and three at university. Currently, they spend eight years in primary, four in secondary and four at university.
