My friend Kennedy Buhere has been provoking me of late. Buhere, the long-serving Communication Officer at the Ministry of Education who has now retired, has complained to me several times about the state of literature in our schools.
He says literature is dying in senior school. He is not alone. Many teachers have also written on my Facebook page arguing that literature in senior school is dead, if not dying. They say very few students are taking the subject, and they are worried about its future.
Their argument is simple. They say literature should be merged with English language, as it was in the 8-4-4 system, in order to save it. To them, the separation of literature from English in the new system is the reason students are not choosing it.
But in saying this, they forget history. Literature did not die in the 7-4-2-3 system that I went through before 8-4-4, yet literature was not merged with English then. Fasihi did not die either, yet it was separated from Kiswahili.
Students still studied literature and fasihi as distinct subjects, and we still produced some of the finest scholars, writers, teachers and thinkers in this country. Are we being myopic here?
Let’s face it: the issue isn’t whether literature is merged with English. The real problem is deeper, many tasked with implementing the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) are simply ignorant of it. They are busy misleading learners on the choice of pathways and subjects. I say this with a lot of pain. Why? Because I have been working with teachers in Kakamega County and the level of confusion and misinformation I see is worrying.
Worryingly, some head teachers lack proper knowledge of pathways and subject combinations, yet they guide students in making crucial decisions about their future.
When teachers are ignorant, the whole system suffers. They mislead students and quietly derail careers before they start.
Many also forget this: You cannot master English from coursebooks alone. I speak from over forty years teaching English and literature, language is learned far beyond grammar exercises and comprehension passages. Language is mastered through extensive reading.
Whether students choose literature as a subject or not, they can never master the English language without reading widely and extensively. They must read novels, plays, short stories, biographies, and essays.
Students must be guided to read for pleasure and imagination. Extensive reading exposes them to language in its natural form. Let’s be clear. Literature is the laboratory of language. Learners cannot expand vocabulary or grasp complex sentences without it. If our children struggle to express themselves, it’s not them—it’s us.
Let me ask a simple question before you judge me: what does literature actually teach? What skills does it give us? Literature trains us to read and think deeply. It teaches analysis, of situations, characters, societies and human behavior. It teaches us how to communicate persuasively and creatively.
In essence, literature trains the imagination. It also trains empathy and instills in the learners the competence of interpretation of social reality. I wonder how we expect learners to acquire critical thinking skills without literature!
What literature does is train young minds to argue, write and listen. These are the skills they need for any career, especially law, education, administration, social work, teaching, medicine and business. These are far from minor life skills. To be a good teacher, you need literature, because teaching is storytelling, explanation, persuasion, and insight into human behavior. To be a good lawyer, you need literature too, because law demands interpreting texts, building arguments, and understanding human motives and conflicts.
I discovered how approachable law can be after studying literature first. For careers in film and theatre, literature lays the groundwork for scriptwriting, character development, dialogue, and storytelling.
For aspiring journalists, literature is equally vital, shaping narrative, language, voice and insight into society. Even engineers, doctors and scientists benefit, as they must write reports, explain ideas, persuade others, collaborate and think creatively to solve problems.
The point is clear: literature produces thinkers. Let’s be honest, it’s not literature that’s dying; it’s teachers who are letting it die through ignorance. Period.
Worse, they’re not just killing literature, they’re undermining CBC itself. CBC isn’t only about subjects; it’s about competencies; critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, citizenship and self-efficacy. Literature cultivates nearly all of these better than most subjects.
My humble submission is we must educate the educators. They need serious retooling and must read government circulars carefully. They need to understand pathways and subject combinations, no easy task, as many abandoned critical reading long ago.
As long as our teachers do not understand competencies and that education is not just about passing exams, this is a lost cause. They have to appreciate that education is about building human beings who can think, create, analyse, communicate and lead. So folks, we are not just losing literature, we are losing the entire spirit of CBE. This is a national tragedy in the making.