Challenges that may compromise reforms

By Wachira Kigotho

The Education Minister Prof Sam Ongeri has put the 8-4-4 system of education on the chopping board. But there is no evidence that his team of experts will soon find quick solutions that would make schools work and deliver good quality education to Kenyans.

Even if the taskforce appointed to collate public views on viability of the 8-4-4 system recommends the system to be scrapped, problems of school effectiveness will still emerge unless threats to quality of education are resolved. For decades, faults in Kenya’s education system have been linked to the failure of service delivery.

According to Dr Barbara Bruns, a lead education economist at the World Bank, costs of service delivery failure are at the core of students benefiting very little from schooling.

Whereas some education experts are keen to reduce the number of years pupils spend in primary school segment to six years from the current eight years, Dr Bruns says what counts is not the number of years in a segment but what pupils actually learn.

Structural changes

So far, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation has taken this into account and typifies Kenya primary education to be of six years, in accordance with international standards and classify Standard Seven and Eight as part of secondary education.

In this case there will be no gain on structural system the task force might recommend. But in question is whether the system and reforms that will be suggested will be able to improve learning on internationally benchmarked tests.

"In a globalising economy, the crucial yardstick is not learning measured on national standards, but learning measured in comparison with the best-performing education systems internationally," says Dr Bruns.

However, studies carried by Unesco-backed Southern and East African Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality show that on average, about 30 per cent of all pupils in Standard Six could only barely read while a further six per cent are illiterate. The situation is serious and any reforms would have to go beyond mere restructuring of education.

According to Elizabeth King, Director of Education at the World Bank, the root cause of low quality education in Kenya and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa is the weak accountability of teachers and education officials to the students.

"Weak accountability in education will cause developing countries to miss the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015.

Inequitable spending

However, instead spending too much time probably on restructuring of education, the task force should consider inequitable spending on primary and secondary education.

Currently, a large number of pupils are learning under trees for lack of classrooms while others sit on stones for lack of desks.

In some schools, there are no toilets and quite often teachers and pupils opt to stay away from school for hygienic reasons.

Whereas inadequate funding is persistently cited as the greatest barrier to quality education in Kenya, corruption, actual theft and misuse of funds meant for learning purposes, is poorly addressed. Donor funds meant for improving learning are often stolen or used in administration.

"Leakage of funds is high and often schools receive a fraction of the voted funds and grants," says Anthony Patrinos, an education economist at the World Bank in a study titled: Making Schools Work: New Evidence on Accountability Reforms.

"For instance, Kenya’s secondary schools receive only a portion of their earmarked bursary funds, while the rest is ‘lost’ through the service delivery chain," says Patrinos.

No doubt leakage is relatively higher in primary schools where capitation funds meant for improving education are used to cater for other institutional purposes apart from learning

However, the most widespread losses and abuses in schooling in Kenya hinge on teacher absenteeism and loss of instructional time. Available statistics indicate that on average, between 25-30 per cent of all teachers are absent from school on any given day.

Teacher performance

"Even when teachers are present at school, they are not teaching," says Dr Michael Kremer who did a study on teacher performance and absenteeism in Western Province. Consequently, as debate rages on whether to scrap or not to overhaul the 8-4-4 system of education, supporters and critics should well know that no structure, no matter how beautifully it will be crafted, will work unless it is accompanied by accountability.

Besides, a study carried jointly by education researchers from Kenyatta University and Cambridge University showed 40 per cent of Kenya’s primary school teachers have limited competence in English, which is the language of instruction.

"They are particularly poor in listening and writing skills," says Paul Wasanga, the Executive Secretary of the Kenya National Examinations Council.

As Prof Sammy Kubasu, the chairman of the Universities Academic Staff Union, recently pointed out, shortcomings in Kenya’s education system are directly linked to low quality teachers within its three cycles and lack of accountability by education officials.

Education planning

Whereas years to be completed in each specific cycle form basis for education planning, in the end it is the input of quality of education in each segment that matters.

Since Independence, Kenya had had several commissions and taskforces to review viability of the education system, but unfortunately many had been involved in restructuring rather than to formulate a system that would make schools work.

To date, Kenya Education Commission, popularly known as Ominde Commission, formed in 1964 remains the best blueprint on education in the country. Prof Simeon Ominde and his committee of experts concentrated on how to revamp the then existing education system. That is the system that most critics of the 8-4-4 are now demanding.

But as the task force reviewing viability of the 8-4-4 system continues with its work, it should consider answers to some of these simple questions: How can it be that a teacher absents himself from school without a good reason? Why are grants and bursaries intended for improving learning in schools stolen or just siphoned off by intermediate layers of administration? Why is the intended school curriculum never finished on time? Why is it taking many primary school pupils more than six years just to learn how to read and write?

Behind some of those questions lies barriers to school effectiveness that in essence have conceptualised the ongoing blame game on failing education system in the country.