Details of The Proposed Education System Begin To Emerge

Education officials together with some learners.

The education system in Kenya is set for a major shakeup. A proposal for a new education curriculum that will replace the current one was last week presented by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) at an event that took place at the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi. The event brought together more than 100 stakeholders in the education system. 

The participants who attended the presentation of the new curriculum proposal unanimously endorsed the recommended reforms to the country’s education system. But their endorsement isn’t the last word, according to Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi.  The CS said that the proposal will be subject to rigorous public scrutiny. But he also appeared to appeal to education stakeholders not to politicise the process of education system reform.
 

What’s in the proposal?
The curriculum proposal by the KICD recommends a multilayer education system that would see the current 8-4-4 system done away with.  For example, the proposed curriculum recommends that Kenya’s education system be structured in three layers namely Early, Middle and Senior schools.
 

What happens in the Early school level?
The Early school will comprise of Pre-Primary and Lower Primary schools. The Pre-primary level will admit learners between the age of four and five years and lower primary will take in learners aged between six and nine years.

Those in the Early school level will be instructed on foundational skills such as basic literacy, numeracy, communications and digital skills. 

What happens in the Middle school level?
The proposed curriculum calls for Middle school made up of two parts namely Upper Primary and Junior School. Those leaving the Middle school level will proceed to senior school, tertiary or higher education. 
Special education

The proposed education system also provides a distinct academic path for learners with special needs such as those with vision and hearing impairments.
 

Developing the syllabus
According to KICD director, Julius Jwan, the next stage is developing the syllabuses for all the different levels of learning, which the agency has now embarked on. But no one knows when the syllabuses will be ready or when the new curriculum will be rolled out.

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Government Changes ICT Trainer For Teachers

Teachers taking ICT lessons.

Public primary school teachers have a new ICT trainer. It turns out that the government has put ICT training programs for the teachers in the hands of Teachers Service Commission (TSC). Previously, it was the Ministry of Education that was running the ICT training program directly and in collaboration with partners. But the ministry faced multiple challenges that prompted a shift in the training strategy.

As the teachers’ employer, TSC is said to be well-placed in handling the teacher training program. The one major area of problem for the Ministry of Education in the primary teacher ICT training program was inviting teachers for the trainings. Kihumba Kamotho, a TSC official in the communications department, said that shifting ICT training program for teachers from the ministry to the agency was the best move in ensuring smooth bridging of the digital gap among public school teachers.
But TSC has contracted a firm called Novel Technologies East Africa that will do the ICT training for teachers on its behalf. The first lot of teachers trained on ICT through TSC/Novel arrangement, about 12,000 of them, will complete their program on July 30.  The government trained about 60,000 public primary school teachers on ICT skills between 2013 and 2015.

Pupils taking computer lessons.

The move to streamline and simplify ICT training for primary school teachers comes at a time when the government has stepped up the rollout of laptops/tablets to primary school pupils as part of the digital education program. The government plans to issue all pupils in public primary schools with computing devices and also boost the churn out of digital content that will be accessed through the devices.  It is not clear whether the rollout of computers to primary school pupils will capture those in alternative schools, which mostly serve low-income areas.

An ICT training facility. Teachers are encouraged to train on ICT to improve their delivery of digital skills to learners.

The government recently issued updated guidelines for alternative schools, requiring them to register afresh with the Ministry of Education or risk losing their operating permits. 

Review of teacher-training course
The government is in the process of reviewing the curriculum for primary teacher training course commonly known as P1. Top education officials, including the Education CS Fred Matiangi, have hinted that the upgraded P1 curriculum will incorporate ICT skills as part of the efforts to close the technology gap in among school teachers. The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) this week submitted a proposal for the review of the country’s education system. The proposal is said to include recommendation to replace the current 8-4-4 system with a 2-6-3-3-3 system.  The 8-4-4 system has long been criticised for overloading learners but failing to equip learners with the right skills they need to face today’s fast-paced world.

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On Caning Pupils, Matiangi Takes A Firm Stand And Fuels A Dispute

Education CS Fred Matiangi.

It turns out that the government has no plans of restoring corporal punishment in schools. Those teachers who may have resumed caning in their schools as part of the efforts of instilling discipline in learners may just have to stop it immediately or face punishment themselves.  That was the message Education Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiangi, sent out recently during an education event in Kirinyaga County. 

At the prize-giving ceremony at Mutige Boys Secondary School, CS Matiangi, through a senior official in his ministry, reiterated that there was no longer room for caning pupils. First, he said that caning is outlawed by the Ministry of Education and institutions that want to remain in compliance with the ministry’s regulations must desist from caning pupils. Second, he observed that there were better alternatives to caning as a means of making sure that learns behaved well in school and the communities they come from. 

You are all responsible
Matiangi also appeared to suggest that the responsibility of disciplining children lies with both teachers and parents. Since the government banned caning of pupils in school, some players in the education sector have claimed that the level of discipline among learners has significantly declined, sparking debate about who should bear the blame for the shortage in discipline.  

Parents have long held the belief that they take children to school not only to learn what is written in books, but also have their behaviors shaped so that they can return to the society as positive role models.  But that used to be true when teachers used the cane freely to force children to behave well. Some parents even didn’t have a problem referring domestic cases of indiscipline involving a child to the school so that they could have the child punished by the teachers after they punish them at home. That practice worked for some and for other it destroyed things, so there has never been a consensus on the importance of caning in school.

Teachers avoiding problems
In the era of no-caning, teachers appear to be trying to protect their skin, lest instilling discipline in a child through the cane cost them their job and land them a term in prison, just as Matiangi recently threatened.  But with that, a vacuum of discipline among learners has been created and the greatest point of departure between teachers and parents now is who is responsible for the discipline gap.

But Matiangi’s latest comments on caning and corporal punishment seem to only fuel in the dispute.

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Young Schoolboy Bends DP Ruto’s Ear

DP William Ruto and a young schoolboy 
in Mowlem, Dandora on June 17.

As Deputy President William Ruto toured Dandora, Mowlem and Umoja 3 on June 17 to inspect development projects, he met a young and interesting friend whom he certainly couldn’t ignore.

The DP, the second-most high ranking official in the government, decided to give the young schoolboy his ear. Nobody knows exactly what the boy whispered into the ears of the DP, but the two newfound friends appeared excited by their conversation. The boy’s courage to go up to the DP in thickly crowded scene and his calm pose while chatting with the second-in-command after the president was striking.

DP Ruto with his newfound friend in Mowlem, Dandora on June 17, 2016.

It is not every day that a country’s deputy president and a young schoolboy in the slum have a private tete-a-tete.

DP Ruto (center) with Embakasi West MP George Theuri (left) inspect Kwamaji-Baraka link road on June 17, 2016.

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Thawabu Hosts Day of the African Child Celebrations

The Day of the African Child procession to Thawabu in Kayole.

Thawabu Primary School in Kayole was the venue of this year’s Day of African Child celebrations in Nairobi. Thousands thronged the school for the event that also drew various top officials in the government and NGOs. 

Speakers at the event reiterated the importance of improving child protection and expanding education opportunities for children.

The day was also marked by entertainment by school children who participated in the event. 

The Day of the African Children has been celebrated since 1991 and it is marked in memory of the children massacred in Soweto, South Africa in 1976 during the Soweto Uprising. The official count of protesters killed during Soweto Uprising is given as 176 but other estimates put the number at 700. 

In South Africa, the Day of the African Child is a national holiday called Youth Day and it is marked every year on June 16, the exact date of the 1976 massacre.

Here are some of the photos from the Day of the African Child celebrations at Thawabu Primary School Kayole. 

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Teachers Can Now Get Laptops At Sh1,000 A Month

Mwalimu National Sacco CEO Robert Shibutse (second left) with officials of the sacco at the launch of Mwalimu Digital Initiative.

A teacher-oriented Sacco has launched a program aimed at providing a low-cost path for teachers to own a laptop. Mwalimu National Sacco, billed as the largest Sacco in Africa, has launched a program dubbed Mwalimu Digital Initiative that will see teachers get a laptop and pay for it on installment plan of Sh1,000 a month.

That means that you can spread the cost of a high-end laptop that costs Sh36,000 over 36 months if you stick to a monthly payment schedule of Sh1,000. But you will still have the option to accelerate your repayment by pay more than Sh1,000 a month.

Sacco members 

The deal to offer teachers laptop on credit at a lower cost appears to be tailored specifically for members of Mwalimu National Sacco. During the launch of the Mwalimu Digital Initiative, officials of the Sacco said that they hope that over 70,000 teachers will benefit from the program. If you consider that there are nearly 300,000 teachers in public and private schools across the country, you get the impression that Mwalimu National Sacco is targeting its very own – registered members with the credit laptop arrangement. 

For the sacco, the laptop deal could be another avenue to recruit more members. Teachers who are not members of Mwalimu National Sacco already might be interested in joining them to benefit from the low-cost laptop offer. 

Mwalimu National Sacco CEO Robert Shibutse speaking at the launch of Mwalimu Digital Initiative.

ICT pressure on teachers

The Government of Kenya’s ongoing rollout of tablets for primary school pupils has increased the pressure on teachers to catch up by improving their ICT literacy. Mwalimu National Sacco CEO, Robert Shibutse, said the laptop they are giving to teachers come preloaded with relevant digital literacy content approved by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).

Partnership with Intel

Mwalimu National Sacco partnered with the East African unit of Intel Corporation ($INTC) to roll out the credit laptop initiative for teachers. The boss of Intel East Africa, Danie Steyn, said at the launch of Mwalimu Digital Initiative that the objective of the program is to empower more teachers with digital skills and expand their connectivity to online resources. 

Intel East Africa chief Danie Steyn speaking at the launch of Mwalimu Digital Initiative.

Intel is the world’s leading vendor of calculating engines used in computers called chips. Its chips can be found in a wide range of computing devices.

Laptop for Kenyan pupils

When the government said it would issue all pupils entering primary schools with laptops or tablets, questions were raised about the preparedness of teachers in delivering digital literacy to their learners. A large numbers of Kenyan teachers are said lack ICT skills and issuing them with laptops at the time the government is rolling out tablets for pupils appear to be a perfect timing by Mwalimu National Sacco as it will help in bridging the digital and technological gap among Kenyan tutors.

The government allocated Sh13.4 million in the 2016/17 budget to drive digital literacy in Kenya.

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Government In The Process Of Reviewing P1 Course

A teacher at work.  

Education SC, Fred Matiang’i, recently revealed that the government had embarked on a process of reviewing the curriculum for the P1 course. The comments by Matiang’i seem to suggest that the government might not discard the course as had been earlier indicated. Students taking P1 course end up as primary school teachers.

International standards

Matiang’i said that the review of P1 course will ensure that training for primary school teachers in Kenya aligns with international standards. P1 course has been around for years and it leads to the award of a certificate after two years of training. But the course has been marred with controversy in the recent years with some in the government as well as other education stakeholders suggesting that it should be phased out and in its place introduced a teacher-training course that leads to the award of diploma.

Striking teachers carry placards as they demand for better salary.

But Matiang’i appears to believe that P1 course is still relevant and what needs to be done to make it better is a review of the curriculum. The CS said that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) is currently drafting an updated version of the P1 curriculum that will be rolled out once the work is complete. No timeline was given for when the curriculum will be ready. But Matiang’i hinted that the new curriculum will seek to expand ICT literacy in the P1 training program. 

Qualification for P1 training in Kenya

It is also not clear whether the new curriculum will increase the number of years required to study for P1. But there have been calls to raise the grades required for admission into P1 course. Currently the minimum KCSE grade required for admission into any public or private P1 training college is C (Plain). The course previously admitted students with grades lower than C (plain), but the intake grade was raised as part of the efforts by the government to raise the quality of education rendered to Kenyan primary school pupils.

Kenyan public colleges P1 intake

Intake to join public P1 colleges is usually done in April and qualified applicants begin their studies in September. P1 students take two national examinations during their training whereby the first one is taken at the end of the first year and the second one at the end of the final year.

Knut officials in solidarity forever…….

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Court Hands Teacher 90 Years In Prison

John Gichia being led to prison.

A primary school teacher has been jailed for 90 years for sexually assaulting 10 pupils at Muthiria Primary School on various dates between January and May 2015. The school is in Kiharu constituency of Muranga County.

A court sitting in Murang’a found John Gichia, 23, guilty of sexually assaulting 10 boys at the school where he was teaching. Gichia also served as the boarding master of the school, a position that is believed provided him with the opportunity to assault the young boys at night.

The court handed Gichia nine years in prison for each of the nine cases of assaults, thus leading to the 90-year sentence. If Gichia survives all the 90 years in prison, he will come out when he is 113 years.

Touch on private parts

The 10 pupils whose case sent Gichia to jail testified that the teacher would entice them and then proceed to touch their private parts while kissing them. They also reported that the teacher did the act after their evening preps.

Headmaster dismissed

Gichia’s sexual assault case also brought problems to the headmaster of the school where he was teaching. TSC has deregistered the headmaster from its teachers roll after it was found that he attempted to protect Gichia by covering up the case. The headmaster was dismissed on the grounds of professional misconduct.

Court rejects Gichia’s version

According to Gichia, nothing along the lines of sexual assault involving him happened at Muthiria Primary School. His version of the story before the court was that some teachers at the school had ganged up to have him removed from his teaching job, hence, made up the story to fix him. He cited his Christian faith a reason he wouldn’t sexually assault the young boys. 

The court found  John Gichia guilty and
he will serve a 90-year jail sentence nonstop.

But the court could hear no of that, insisting that the prosecutor of the case had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he committed the act, not once, but repeatedly.

The case of Gichia continues the growing surveillance of teacher by TSC, education regulators and law enforcement agencies. Teachers who have been removed from TSC register are not allowed to teach anywhere either in public or private schools. Hundreds of teachers have recently been deregistered by TSC over various offences. 

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Government May Restore School Ranking

Former Education CS, Jacob Kaimenyi. He led the ban on school ranking in national exams.

Ranking of primary and secondary schools in national examinations (KCPE and KCSE) may return if a bill being worked out in parliament becomes law. Members of the national assembly are in the process of amending a piece of legislation that relates to the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC). The amendment will pave the way for a return to the ranking of schools in national examinations.
The KNEC (amendment) bill, which is sponsored by Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa, has received the backing of several MPs who believe that ranking of schools is a fact of life that cannot be avoided. The government banned ranking of schools based on their performance in KCPE and KCSE over claims that the practice was fueling exam cheating.

Things will never be the same again
However, ranking of schools in the new dispensation could be sharply different from what used to happen in the past before the government banned the practice. For example, the bill calls for a structured way of ranking schools in national exams. If you read the bill carefully, you get the impression that if it becomes law, schools will be ranked according to their category and the learning resources they have access to. That means that national schools will be ranked separately from county, municipal and non-formal schools. In the past, schools were ranked together regardless of the level of staffing, infrastructure and other learning resources they have.

Balanced ranking
It appears that lawmakers have realised that rampant cheating in national exams was a direct consequence of unfair ranking of schools. As such, they hope that balanced ranking will solve the problem while at the same time expose best and weak performers in national exams.
The lawmakers also believe that bringing back school ranking will enable other education stakeholders to quickly identify where to channel resources to improve the quality of education. For example, school’s poor performance in the national exam could be a statement about its shortage of resources.
Some parents also use the school rankings to identify the best schools for their children.

Excitement
The ban on ranking of schools has doused the celebrations that typically accompany the release of KCPE and KCSE results.

Kinyago Dandora Secondary School senior girls. The school posted the second-best KCSE results in Njiru District in 2011.

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Government Tightens Regulation of Alternative Schools

Education SC Fred Matiangi.

In what could create a complex environment for informal schools to operate in, the government has moved to tighten regulation of the sector. The move follows recent agitations by leaders of teachers’ unions KNUT and KUPPET that informal schools, also known as alternative schools, were diluting the quality of education in the country.

Alternative schools are identified with low tuition fees requirement and they claim to offset the shortage of formal learning institutions, especially in the low income urban areas.

Whether the alternative schools are in business for profits or they back government education efforts, a new and perhaps more complicated operating environment awaits them. The new informal education guidelines, recently unveiled by Education CS, Fred Matiang’i, require all existing alternative schools to register a fresh with the Ministry of Education, a process that could see fresh demands surface and possibly lead to deregistration of some schools.

30% of teachers to be professionals
The government has also issued several other fresh requirements for informal schools with hopes that the measures would help boost the quality of. Among other things, at least 30% of the teaching staff in alternative schools must be trained teachers. Those teachers must also be registered with teachers’ unions of their choice. Where untrained teachers are engaged, the government requires informal schools to employee those who have KCSE mean grade of at least C (Plain).

Complex question
The government claims that poor regulation of information schools over the years has watered down the quality of education in the country. However, it is difficult to explain how pupils in the alternative schools perform better in national examinations than their counterparts in the closely monitored public schools.
Critics of tighter regulation of alternative schools claim that KNUT and KUPPET seem to be more interested in expanding their dues collection rather than strengthening the quality of education. There are speculations that employers in the informal education sector would be required to remit union dues for their teachers to KNUT or KUPPET depending on the union the teachers register through.

Potential disruption
For a country that is already struggling with growing unemployment numbers, shaking up the informal education sector could not only displace many learners, but also lead to loss of many jobs. Alternative schools employ thousands of teachers and other support personnel, thus helping alleviate joblessness condition in the country. On the other hand, the measures could help modernize and formalize the usually chaotic informal education sector.

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