A third of young people in Kenya struggle to identify simple problems and possible solutions, according to a report launched last week by the Regional Education Learning Initiative (Reli), raising questions on how they are being equipped with essential life skills.
According to the study, which involved 17,276 young people aged between 13 and 17 from 20 counties, only five per cent of respondents were able to justify solutions or identify multiple approaches to solving a problem to be considered at the proficient level.
Problem solving is one of the key 21st -century skills that students need to acquire in order to succeed in their future careers and in life. The researchers assessed young people's ability to identify the existence of a problem from multiple perspectives and their understanding that there may be multiple solutions from which to evaluate and choose.
The study was also conducted in Uganda, Tanzania and Zanzibar as part of the Assessment of Life Skills and Values in East Africa (ALiVE) initiative by Reli, a network of more than 70 organisations in East Africa.
"The results show that most adolescents are not functioning at a particularly high level in the skills and values assessed. There are adolescents who are performing at a very high level, indicating that such performance is well within the achievable range for the 13-17 age group. There is still a lot of work to be done in the education sector to bring more of this age group to higher levels of functioning," the report says.
In the assessment, Zanzibari adolescents scored highest in problem-solving skills, with 14 per cent of them at the proficient level, while Uganda had the lowest score at three per cent.
The ALiVE initiative focused on developing an assessment of three life skills (collaboration, problem solving and self-awareness) and one value (respect). It targeted both in-school and out-of-school adolescent boys and girls.
“It is no longer time to focus only on knowledge, but for our graduates to have the life skills necessary for the 21st century. We need to emphasise skills and competencies rather than mastery of content,” Zanzibar’s education minister Lela Mohammed, who was a guest at the launch of the report in Nairobi, said..
In terms of problem-solving skills, the researchers divided the tasks into four sub-skills: identifying the problem, gathering information, exploring alternative solutions and selecting a solution.
"Gender had no effect on problem solving. Men and women performed similarly. Similarly, there are no associations between the disability status of the young people and problem solving," the report says.
However, age was found to have an influence on the skills demonstrated, with older adolescents demonstrating higher skills than younger ones.
In addition, adolescents with higher levels of education demonstrated higher skills than those with lower levels of education. For example, 9.4 per cent of young people with upper secondary education are proficient, compared to only 3.4 per cent of those with primary education.
Similarly, young people who are proficient in digital literacy show higher levels of problem solving than their counterparts.
When assessed on another 21st century skill — collaboration — only 10 per cent of Kenyan adolescents were at the proficient level, which describes individuals who collaborate by taking positions and contributing ideas, encouraging others and listening to others' contributions.
