Tusome Initiative a welcome boost

Unlike other sectors of our economy, education is really the business of every Kenyan, and each household is in one way or another tied to a school.

Each year, Kenya spends over 20 per cent of her budget on education, making it one of the highest education spenders on the ccontinent.

We pride ourselves of nearly 25,000 schools, and well over 200,000 teachers.

Still, private investment in education has continued to grow, with around 16 per cent of children in private primary schools.

Indeed, education constitutes one of Kenya's deepest commitments, ever since independence, when one of the key goals of Mzee Kenyatta's government was to eliminate ignorance.

Yet, 51 years down the line, and despite the constitutional right to basic education, our education system continues to struggle with the most important thing – getting children to learn.

A few weeks back, we witnessed an end to the two weeks teachers' strike.

This was after the much-heated debate on whether we should do away with ranking in our education system or not. The Uwezo learning assessment, among other national studies, continues to reveal that many children are going to school, but are not learning.

Even the recently-released KCPE results verified that many of our children are completing primary school without having acquired the basic skills of reading and doing basic mathematics.

Still, nearly 20 per cent of Kenyan adults cannot read this article and make meaning out of it, and continue to struggle with basic things like using a mobile phone or reading road signs.

Why then, has the promise of quality education been so elusive, for so long? While we have teachers' shortage in the country, there is evidence that even the available teachers do not teach as much as they should.

Still, many of them lack the basic skills and motivation to teach. On the other hand, many parents have neglected their responsibility as the 'first teacher', and hardly support their children to learn.

In many ways, there is inadequate accountability of the funds that go to our schools, while many schools complain of dwindling support from the quality assurance officers.

Many parents have made choice to take their children to private schools so that they may learn and perform better.

Even then, there is evidence that many private schools teach to the exam, denying children play and holistic education. Despite all these, this year ushers in a fresh promise.

 

As 2015 marks the end of the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All targets, the Ministry of Education Science and Technology is taking a big step to improve learning.

One of these interventions is the Tusome Initiative, which will be implemented over the next four years.

Through Tusome, approximately 60,000 teachers in more than 22,600 schools will be trained in innovative methods of literacy instruction and 5.4 million Standard 1 and 2 pupils will be twice as likely to meet the national benchmarks for literacy.

Doubling literacy levels is an extremely ambitious target, considering the compounded factors of why learning is not happening, as it should.

Besides the teacher instruction, Tusome will provide Google Nexus tablets to each TAC tutor, County Director of Education and County Director of TSC, to enable them conduct lesson observation and provide immediate feedback to teachers to improve learning.

Third, Tusome will ensure that each child has a Kiswahili and English textbook, up from the current situation of every three children sharing a book.

The role of the TAC Tutor will be reinstated, visiting teachers and giving them support where they are, to continually improve their teaching.

Lastly, Tusome will establish a Tusome Youth Fund to engage youth, aged 18-35, in the improvement of literacy skills among younger children. Youth groups will be able to apply for grant funding to establish early grade reading activities such as reading clubs and tutoring circles in local communities.

If this were to happen, Kenyan children will have a head start in their ability to read and understand, and over the years, we would see examination results continue to improve.