Reforms in education sector in recent times

Reforms in education sector in recent times

These are changes that have taken place in the education sector in recent times. These changes are as a result of recommendations from various reports, policies or sessional papers. Below are some of the reforms that have taken place.

Free Primary Education

Free primary school was introduced to ensure that the poor people gained enrollment to school therefore promoting education for all. It was rolled out in 2003 as a fulfillment of the NARC manifesto during the 2002 elections. Free education was in line with the Millennium development goals which are aimed at achieving universal primary education and reduction of poverty. The program has also been propagated by the Ominde report of 1964 as a way of enhancing quality, access and retention.

Free primary education is not a new notion in the Kenyan Republic. It dates back to 1974 during the Kenyatta era. He was the first president to introduce the program. When it was introduced the enrollment shot by 150 percent the following year. However by the time the pupils reached grade 5 only 55 percent of the enrolled students were still in school. The program did not last long before collapsing. During the Moi era the program was started again in 1979.This time the enrolment shot by 60 percent. However just like the Kenyatta era by the time the pupils reached grade five there was massive dropping out which left only 45 percent of the enrolled students in school. The program collapsed short while later. Both failures were attributed to falling in quality of the education with time.

During the Kibaki era in 2003 an additional 1.5 million children joined school for the first time. With time however the same trend of drop outs has repeated itself leaving very small numbers in school compared to the initial enrolments. There are several challenges that the program has been facing which leads to poor quality of education which in turn leads to drop outs.

Challenges Facing the Free Education Program

First is the shortage of the teaching and learning and resources. These include classrooms, books, stationery and playing grounds among others. These shortages have led to congestion of pupils making it difficult for proper and efficient delivery of instructions by teachers. Second are teacher shortages owing to the 8 plus one TSC staffing norm. Despite the large number of unemployed teachers in the country teacher shortages in schools has been a major problem in the country due to the increased number of students. This is due to the reluctance of the government to employ teachers. Some schools have a teacher student ratio of as high as 1:70 yet the recommended ratio in Kenya is 1:45.This disadvantages the weak students since the teacher moves along with the bright students leaving the others struggling to grasp concepts. Third is delay in receipt of funding by schools. Most of the free primary education funding arrives late in school. This makes the school administrators struggle running the institutions resulting in poor delivery of services and shortage of resources. These factors contribute in poor quality of education in these schools. Last but not least is poor management of resources. This applies from the ministry of education all the way to the school levels. Funds are misappropriated at different stages making only meager resources available to the learners.

Recommended Solutions

Several measures can be put in place to ensure that the free primary education program does not fail like it has done in the past. First is recruitment of more teachers by the Teachers Service Commission. This will narrow down the student teacher ration therefore improving the content delivery. Fewer students enable the teacher to give personalized attention to pupils therefore improving the quality of learning. Second is putting in place stringent policies that block loopholes that encourage corruption. This way the funds lost through misappropriation and corruption will be able to reach schools and be used for the right purposes. Third is increasing the number of streams in schools so as to decongest classes while at the same time using the available resources. This will act as a solution even before the number of teachers reaches the recommended numbers. The number of schools in marginalized area should be added to ensure that learners from these regions do not drop out. This is because of the huge distances they cover to arrive in schools given the small number of schools in these areas. Finally head teachers should be trained on proper management of funds through various workshops to ensure they use the disbursed funds appropriately.

100 percent Transition

Transition refers to the advancing of students from one education level to another. A hundred percent transition from preprimary to primary was a recommendation in sessional paper 14 of 2012.Sessional paper 1 of 2019 recommended that there should be automatic progression to the next grade in a bid to promote hundred percent transition. The program was a part of a global campaign to give children twelve years of continual learning. To promote this the government provided free primary education and subsidized secondary education bearing in mind that tuition fees was a major hindrance for the transition.

Initially there were several factors that used to determine transition of a learner from one level to another. First was academic performance. A learner had to acquire a stipulated set grade so as to attain entrance into the next grade or level of education. Those who failed to attain the set standard grade would either repeat their current grade while others choose to discontinue the education. Second was the economic status of parents. Children who were privileged to have economically stable parents would transit to the next education level automatically since they could raise the required fees. Those who came from humble backgrounds were however, not as privileged since some dropped out due to lack of school fees. Last but not least was the availability of vacancies in secondary schools. A good number of students failed to join secondary schools after being turned away by school administrators who claimed the school was filled to capacity.

In 2016 and the years before that transition rate from primary to secondary school was only 80 percent. However with heavy investment by the government into the education sector and the policy for hundred percent transition, the rate rose to 97 percent in 2019.The hundred percent transition to secondary school was implemented in 2018 with the first lot being the 2017 candidates. Despite the policy which saw many schools overpopulated some schools were still under populated. This is due to bias that parents had towards some schools owing to diverse factors such as history of poor performance. Though their children were to be admitted to these schools they searched for alternative schools for their children. Some counties also experienced low transition rates. These included Lamu, Mombasa, Kwale, Samburu, Isiolo and Tana River. Some of the reasons that led to rates as low as 70 percent and below were early marriages of children, pastoralist zones and moral decay leading to early prostitution among others.

This policy has faced several challenges in its implementation. Among them is inadequacy of teaching and learning resources. These include classrooms, laboratories and textbooks. These resources are in shortage due to the upsurge of the students being admitted to the schools therefore putting a strain on the resources. Second is shortage of sanitation facilities such as toilets and bathrooms for boarding schools. This has been a huge problem since students are at a risk of diseases resulting from unsanitary congested sanitation facilities. Unreasonable teacher student ratio is also a big problem which has been making proper content delivery difficult. Finally are indiscipline cases from children who have been compelled to be in school against their wishes. Since they are not in school for education they spend their time doing activities which are against the school rules therefore giving the teachers a hard time.

These challenges can be solved through addition of extra streams in schools to ease congestion, Investing in construction of extra sanitation facilities and ensuring the undisciplined students are not given attention or entertained but disciplined accordingly in line with the law.

SUBSIDIZED DAY SECONDARY EDUCATION

Subsidize is to support an organisation or activity financially, or to pay part of the cost of something. Subsidized Free Day Secondary Education was an education policy introduced in 2008 during president’s Kibaki’s era. Education policies which touched on Subsidized Free Day Secondary Education include Gachathi (1980) and Mackay report (1981) which recommended cost sharing in the Universities and Secondary schools.

The Process

According to Subsidized Day Secondary Education policy, the government was expected to meet the tuition fee only and the parents were expected to meet other requirements like lunch transport and boarding fees for those in boarding schools. Initially the government provided Ksh. 10,265 per student which increased to Ksh. 12,870 in 2014. Currently as per 2019 capitation fee of Ksh 22,244 tuition fee is given per student per year in public schools of which Ksh. 11,122 for term 1, Ksh. 6,673 for term 2 and 4,449 for term 3.

Schools classified as category A 2019

These are National schools and extra county schools in Nyeri, Thika and Eldoret. On top of Ksh. 22,244 from the government the parents have to part with boarding equipment and stores fees of Ksh. 30,385, maintenance and improvement of Ksh. 20,000 and activity fee of Ksh. 798.

Category B schools

These are boarding schools and extra county schools in other areas. Here parents have to part with boarding, equipment and stores of Ksh. 25,385, maintenance of Ksh. 20,000, activity fee of Ksh. 250

Special needs education school fees

The government has enhanced capitation to Ksh. 57,974 per child. Obligation to parents is Ksh. 10790 boarding fee, maintenance of Ksh. 2000.

Purpose of subsidized Day Secondary Education

The launch of Subsidized Day Secondary Education in 2008 was meant to address illiteracy, low quality education, low completion rates at secondary education and high cost of education. These efforts were a positive move towards the realization of the millennium Development Goals. Since introduction of Subsidized Day Secondary Education, enrolment of learners in Secondary schools has increased. Implementation of Free Primary Education has also led to upsurge in Secondary school enrolments.100% transition has also contributed to high enrolment of learners in secondary school. This has led to an acute shortage of teachers and the need to expand secondary schools.

Factors / Disadvantages of Subsidized Day Secondary Education.

Inadequacy of finance

Though the government meets tuition fee, parents may not be able to meet the other fee requirement.

Inadequate resources

Lack of enough human resources e.g. teachers

Rise in teacher student ratio

With increased number of students as a result of subsidized day secondary education teacher student ratio is high leading to increased workload for teachers. This is likely to pose a challenge to head teachers who are expected to ensure quality education is not compromised.

How to improve the Subsidized Day Secondary Education

1. The government should increase allocation of funds.
2. Government should remove all other levies like examination fee, P.T.A funds to make education affordable.
3. Employ more teachers to meet the international standards of teacher student ratio.

PROPOSED COMPETENCY BASED CURRICULUM NEW STRUCTURE OF EDUCATION

Competency is the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. Competency based curriculum is a new system of education designed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development(KICD) team and launched by the ministry of education in 2017. The CBC is designed to emphasis the significance of developing skills and knowledge and also applying those competencies to real life situations. Competency based learning begins by identifying specific competencies or skills and enables learners to develop mastery of each competency or skill at their own pace, usually working with a mentor. In CBC, learners work individually, rather than in cohorts. They can develop just the competencies or skills they feel they need or can combine a whole set of competencies into a full qualification, such as a certificate, diploma or increasingly a full degree.

Core Features and Objectives of the Competency Based Curriculum

The CBC for early years education was rolled out in pre-primary 1 and 2 and grades 1 2and 3 across the country early on January. The government lays the foundation that will see the country transit from 8-4-4 to the 2-6-3-3-3 education system, which will be a Competency Based Curriculum structure.

Core features

By the end of the learning period the learner should have achieved the following competencies:

1. Critical thinking and problem solving
2. Learning to learn
3. Imagination and creativity
4. Digital literacy
5. Communication and collaboration
6. Citizenship
7. Self-efficacy

In 2-6-3-3-3 learners will not sit for exams but will be evaluated through continuous assessment tests on the skills acquired. Lower primary will include grade 1-3 and their subjects will include; Kiswahili English, Literacy, Mother tongue, science, Social studies, Agricultural activities, movement and creative activities. Upper primary will include grades 4-6 and the subjects will include Kiswahili, English, Maths, Home science, Agriculture, Science and Technology, Creative arts, Moral and Life skills, Physical and Health Education. Junior Secondary will include grade 7-9 and all the core subjects will be taught. Senior Secondary will consist of grade 10-12 there will be 3 areas of specialization Arts and sports, Science and social science and STEM( Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics. A school will choose to focus on one more areas of specialization depending on the ability to acquire the infrastructure necessary for acquisition of the identified competencies. Graduates from this level will be allowed to join vocational training centres or pursue University education for 3 years.