Students go home after schools closed for the August holidays on July 31, 2024.
More than a year after the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) report was launched, many of the recommendations are yet to be implemented although most changes had one-year timelines.
Some of the changes require amendments in statutes and although 11 Bills and a sessional paper were drafted, they have never been presented to the Cabinet for approval for tabling in Parliament.
The situation has affected government funding for education and operations within the education sector.
The suggested changes to law also need to go through other processes like public participation, which may further drag their implementation into law.
The Bills are the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Bill (2024) The Kenya National Qualifications Framework (Amendment) Bill (2024) Tertiary Education Placement and Funding Bill (2024), Kenya Literature Bureau (Amendment) Bill (2024) and the Kenya National Examinations Council (Amendment) Bill (2024).
Others are the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (Amendment) Bill (2024), Basic Education Bill (2024), Education Appeals Tribunal Bill (2024), Basic Education Scholarships and Bursaries Bill (2024), Science Technology and Innovation (Amendment) Bill (2024) and The Universities Bill (2024).
The sessional paper is titled The Sessional Paper on a Policy Framework for Education Reforms in Kenya, 2024. It seeks to define the policy that has guided the reforms in the education sector.
Nairobi woman representative Esther Passaris last week gave notice of motion on comprehensive bursary reform in the country which heavily borrows from the Basic Scholarships and Bursaries Bill (2024). It seeks to consolidate all government scholarships and bursaries and put them under the Ministry of Education, delinking them from control by politicians.
To deal with the perennial complaints about inadequate capitation in schools, the PWPER recommended that the Ministry of Education reviews students’ operational costs.
Thereafter, it was meant to establish and provide minimum essential packages in schools for adequate delivery of the curriculum.
“The current capitation to schools is based on a flat-rate formula, where all learners from poor or well-to-do households receive equal capitation,” the PWPER report that was launched in August 2023 observed.
The minimum essential package was intended to cushion schools that have low enrolment and which are disadvantaged when capitation is pegged on the number of learners.
The recommended minimum allocation are Sh70,200 for pre-primary, Sh537,120 for primary level, Sh2,030,805 for junior school, Sh3,041,145 for senior school and Sh1,890,000 for special needs education schools.
The PWPER made recommendations to deal with the confusion around junior and senior schools. The junior school experience has largely been unpleasant with learners going untaught due to inadequate staffing. There is still debate on whether the segment should remain in primary schools or moved to secondary schools.
“After two years of instability in junior school, it is patently clear that the domiciling of junior school in primary schools was a mistake. Very low quality of learning is taking place at that level because the curriculum content is best suited for secondary schools, which have human resources and enabling infrastructure,” said Akello Misori, the secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education teachers.
In order to prepare for the transition to senior school in 2026, the MoE was given six months to generate criteria for classifying schools in terms of career pathways while ensuring all regions have all the options. However, this has not been done even as the pioneer CBC class enters the last year of junior school next year.
The Basic Education Curriculum Framework (BECF) provides for three career pathways at senior school. These are STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), social sciences and arts and sports science. The BECF projects that 60 per cent of the learners at senior will be placed in the STEM pathway, 25 per cent in social sciences and 15 per cent in arts and sports science.
“The current categorisation of public secondary schools disadvantages the sub-county schools that are predominantly day schools. While the national, extra-county and county schools admit learners with higher examination scores, they are also better endowed with infrastructure and other learning resources, including boarding facilities,” reads the report.
The ministry is also lagging behind in formulation of guidelines for placement of learners into the career pathways at senior school. The PWPER had given it one year to develop the guidelines but up to now, leaners and their parents are still in the dark over how they will be placed.
The guidelines for the selection and placement of should be based on performance, interests, and competencies (including use of aptitude tests) of the learners.
Additionally, the PWPER proposed a one-year period for the development of mechanisms for setting and printing national assessment in Kenya. Currently, national examinations are printed abroad because of security of the materials which is an expensive affair.
The government was tasked to develop the capacity of the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) to print national assessments in Kenya, within three years but one year is already lost. The Knec Act Section 3 (1) is also to be amended to have Knec renamed the Kenya National Assessment Council.
