Pay teachers well and you won’t have to change the curriculum

Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary general Wilson Sossion during a past media briefing. (Standard)

Critically speaking, it is not clear what was wrong with the 7-4-2-3 system of education in Kenya that we threw out to move to the highly discredited 8- 4- 4 system. Anyway, we are done with the latter and now moved on to the 2-6-3-3-3.

Perhaps we did not fully appreciate the strengths of the 7-4-2-3 because all the talk around competency in the 2-6-3-3-3 was considerably incorporated in the former. For instance, skills were taught in art and crafts at primary level while village polytechnics continued to offer career opportunities to students with talent and inclination to practical knowledge. Form V and VI provided the much needed specialisation in consideration of each student’s capacities.