Solution does not lie in curriculum change

Tucked in a clump of trees in Nairobi’s Kilimani area, a little private school sits on an acre of land.

Offering the British National Curriculum (BNC) education, the school is much sought after by parents desirous of quality education for their progeny.

Nothing about the school is suggestive of value for the high fees charged. The buildings are antiquated and the grounds too small for any meaningful extra-curricula activities.

The meals served are spartan and if there is any redeeming quality at all, it is probably in the teaching staff who give of themselves enthusiastically, even if, drawing from text-books that are relics of the 1970s.

The popularity of such schools points to the dissatisfaction of many with public school education. Even more disconcerting is the fixation with foreign systems of education as the panacea for the perceived shortfalls of Kenya’s 8-4-4 school system, each figure denoting the number of years spent at each educational level. Asked to state why 8-4-4 causes discombobulation, hackneyed responses range from accusations of excessive workloads on teachers and students to inability to foster “employable skills.”

The Ministry of Education has come up with a new 2-6-3-3 curriculum. Touted as a Competence Based Curriculum (CBC), it’s a departure from 8-4-4 that encouraged “rote learning” and nothing else.

The curriculum

But that assertion flies in the face of a ministry policy document that states in its forward that the shift to the 8-4-4 system was “to provide a curriculum that would help learners to gain practical skills and competences to enable them become self-reliant.

The curriculum was reformed from one that geared the learners towards white collar jobs, to a more practical oriented curriculum that would enable graduates of the system to generate jobs.”

Clearly, the new CBC system, with all its highfalutin concepts and false starts, is nothing more than a glorified 8-4-4 system. Which raises the question; Is the 8-4-4 system so irretrievably broken that only a new system can cure its ills? Professor Khaemba Ongeti, a curriculum and learning design specialist at Moi University, talks of the key components of curriculum. These are objectives, content, methods and assessment. Looking at the objectives of 8-4-4 and CBC, they appear to be uncannily similar. The problem seems to lie in methods and assessments.

Of that, Professor Ongeti says, “we always seek to overhaul content without changing methods and assessment strategies. The question why children do not learn may not be answered by changing the structure of the number of years spent at each educational level.” He further says, “efficiency in learning outcomes is determined by methods.”

Learner facilities

Rather than change the entire curriculum, a bit like killing a mosquito with a shot-gun, emphasis ought to be given to its components, especially to methods. Here, teacher competence plays a great role.  Which is why the Education CS’s recent insistence on lowering teacher qualifications is baffling. This is despite protest from Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the state-mandated teacher employer, and a contrary opinion from the nation’s Attorney General.

There are three important conclusions that obtain from discussions on matters of education. The first is that whereas 8-4-4 may have some deficits in facilitating learning and bridging some skills gaps, its total replacement may not be the most ideal solution.

Government should up its ante in terms of investment in education, first of learner facilities, then of teacher training. The exodus to private schools that offer other curricula is not necessarily because of their superiority over 8-4-4 system.

Second, the dithering and prevarication over the preparedness of the Government for the implementation of the CBC system in 2019 does not engender national confidence in our public-schools system. Education CS Mohamed’s fealty to those calling the shots behind the scenes has  seen her take a position, then retract embarrassingly.

Third, Kenyan parents ought to take up matters of public-school education with as much zeal as those of national elections. The current indifference where private solutions are sought from private schools only serve to embolden a sinister deep state that may be behind the current push for a hurried implementation of the CBS system.

The profit element made by nefarious characters pushing for sub-standard text books to be sold should be a wake-up call to protest; or else, enroll one’s child in a private school in the leafy suburbs!

Mr Khafafa is Vice Chairman, Kenya-Turkey Business Council