According to Capital News the fate of the 8-4-4 education system is yet to be decided.With recent efforts by Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, it seems the education sector will experience a complete overhaul.
Education stakeholders were to meet to decide the fate of the 8-4-4 system during a major conference set to take place at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC). The meeting will seek to reform the system which has been in place since 1985 and bring in a new curriculum which will ensure learners acquire competencies and skills to meet Vision 2030 blueprint.
A proposal by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) indicated that there will be Early, Middle and Senior schools with a great focus on continuous assessment tests over summative evaluation. Early childhood and lower primary education; middle primary and lower secondary; and upper secondary will take five, six and three years, respectively.
However, the National Basic Education Curriculum Framework (NBECF) does not indicate how many years students will take in tertiary institutions. One of the options the conference is likely to be presented with is from a 2012 report of a task force chaired by Douglas Odhiambo, which proposed the scrapping of the 8-4-4 system.
It recommended a 2-6-3-3-3 system, which it says would ensure learners acquire skills to meet the human resource aspirations of Vision 2030 blueprint.
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This article was first published on Capital News.