The report also said the competencies, and skills will enable learners to meet the human resource aspirations of Vision 2030 by offering a choice of subjects and career paths.
But the education stakeholders argued such skills could be incorporated in the curriculum, which they said should be immediately reviewed without abolishing the 8-4-4 system of education.
Speakers at the forum said they had no problem with the curriculum proposed by the Task Force, but wanted the current curriculum immediately reviewed to accommodate aspects of the proposed system.
Among subjects proposed by the Task Force are communication skills, social skills, environmental awareness, and foundation of moral and ethical values, foundation of talent identification, talent enhancement, Information Communication Technology, and entrepreneurship, among others. "Further the structure should allow all learners to transit from one level to the next until they are 18 yeas of age," the report said.
But Knut, Kuppet and KSSA said building more secondary schools and employing more teachers would solve the issue of transition to the next level without having to change the 8-4-4 model.
Academic calendar
The participants also unanimously voted for the retention of the January to December school calendar instead of September to August, which they argued was foreign-oriented. Kenya has no summer and winter seasons, they said. Former Education minister Sam Ongeri had proposed this change so that during exams at the end of the year, only candidates would be in school. He said this would help curb cheating.
In Prof Ongeriâs plan, first and second terms would be longer and the breaks shorter, but third term would only run for two months, followed by a two-month Christmas break.
But the Task Force proposes term one runs for 13 weeks (January to April), followed by a four-week vacation in April.
The second term also would have 13 weeks from May to July, followed by another four-week break in August. Term three, the shortest, follows after August vacation and ends with four-week Christmas break.
It also proposed a community outreach programme in between the school terms. A member of the Task Force Samuel Maneno said he felt the proposals were within what Kenyans wanted.
"We feel the Task Force needs to sit down and move on the basis of what was proposed," Maneno said.
