The current education system in Kenya has for a while been blamed for producing half-baked graduates. The scapegoat has been the 8.4.4 system and now there are cries to eliminate this system and establish yet a new order, the 2-6-6-3.
It should be remembered that the 8-4-4 system was introduced in the country during President’s Moi regime in 1985 to replace the previous 7-4-2-3 system of education. The government of the day commissioned an expert from Canada to consult all stakeholders and come up with the best system for Kenya. The former President Moi and has repeatedly cautioned the Ministry of Education against making a hasty decision concerning the matter of repealing 8-4-4.
Recent reports that “A majority of Standard Three pupils cannot read English and Kiswahili work for Class One” and “Over 50 per cent of Class 8 pupils can barely read” have been disheartening enough. Both these reports have pointed out that that many teachers in public primary schools are incompetent. Absenteeism of teachers and pupils remains a major a challenge in schools across the country. These are the main challenges facing the education sector and not the 8.4.4 system. The 8.4.4 system opponents claim that the system is too exam oriented, so is life. Even when applying for studies abroad students abroad students will have to sit standardized tests such as SATs, GRE ‘S, GMA’s etc. Some management trainee programs or jobs also require those shortlisted to partake written interviews. So examinations are here to stay.
As a society, we have become too much focused on short-cut measures. We have refused to look at the mirror and see the rot that has permeated our educational systems and hence the view that simply changing 8-4-4 to 2-6-6-3 will solve all our calamities. Why are we not focusing on the human capital? Teachers ought to be one of the main focus by our policy makers, next to the students. They ought to be well trained and compensated for their work. Unmotivated, untrained, inexperienced teachers will always spell doom to the education of young people regardless of the system in place. They money they are going to use in initiating the 2-6-6-3 system should instead be used to train more teachers, buy more learning materials as well as improve the infrastructure of schools. Majority of schools lack libraries and basic science labs. Teachers ought to be the mentors on matters career and life. Reality on the ground is different. When I was in Standard Six, for example, my only goal was to finish primary school and become a motor vehicle mechanic, reason why? My uncle was a mechanic and he was the only person I could look up to for motivation and career guidance. No one had then shown me the possibilities available. I did not know what high school was let alone a university. Not until when a teacher from a better performing school was transferred to ours. He opened my eyes. Good mentorship is one of the most important necessities for a young person. Yet another reason why schools should open doors for mentors and motivational speakers to return to schools to guide students. This in a way complements the employed teacher’s efforts at no extra expense to the school.
Why is it that hundreds of frustrated form four graduates don’t even know the careers they want to pursue even after their results are out? Why do students drop out of campus midway through their course? Simply because they have come to realize that they are pursuing the wrong career, either because they followed the crowd, or perhaps because they were forced into it by their parents? Is it because of the 8-4-4 system? Really? Early from the primary school to high school, students ought to have received enough career guidance to make proper career choices regardless of the education system. Those who can write should write career guide books and these be circulated across all the schools. We ought to take this seriously as a nation. In any way, there is no perfect education system across the world.
The proposed 2-6-6-3 might just be another scheme to unnecessarily spend public funds. Kenyan teachers & lectures are poorly paid and mostly unmotivated to go the extra mile of acting as mentors and career counselors. Focus should be on them and the students. Not the length of time a student should spend in this or that level of education.
Our education system needs to be data driven. Schools need a mechanism to physically track all the pupils/students class attendance, test scores, homework, and classroom participation and these should be accessible to parents and educators. This way, it would be easy to track those who are improving and those who are falling behind. Teachers need to be taught how take these data and how to manipulate and experiment with it to find the best solutions.
We need a very strong private businesses-schools partnership. Business people can come out and sponsor regular talks to students by professionals who are already working. Some may even start volunteering to start part-time teaching for free to schools close to their neighborhoods.
We need serious reforms. We need to start collecting the necessary data and learn how to use it to make decisions not to just introduce yet another system. Data can be transformative if used well to make decisions. We need a data driven culture that affects how classroom decisions are made. How many teachers have close relationships with their pupils? How many teachers know the wellbeing of the pupils they teach? I mean on an individual basis? How many? We need teachers to engage with the data they collect and make decisions based on it, not mere opinions or hearsay. We need data to be collected on every teacher’s teaching aptitude and then acted upon.
Universities need to partner with high schools. A multidisciplinary approach to education in Kenya is needed. Who can imagine the level of impact if lectures would start training programmes for high school students? If engineers started teaching high school students once in a while? Students would need to be taught to think logically, like scientists to solve their life problems. They would need to be taught to make choices with clear eyes. Students, for example need to be taught engineering design process. This process is built around the idea that many problems that seem overwhelming at first can be broken into smaller pieces, and then solutions tested, again and again, until an insight emerges.
All said and done, we need to develop a reading culture as a country. You can find a mentor, a career counselor in a book. Once you start a love relationship with books you will find all the inspiration and mentorship you need. There is no substitute to reading. The two wealthiest individuals as at the writing of this article, Bill Gates and Warren Buffets have spoken and written about their love for books and how books have impacted on their lives.
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