Business Daily (Nairobi)
Mwaura Kimani
6 July 2009
Every year in June, all roads lead to Mombasa for Kenya's 4,000-plus secondary school heads as they troop down to the coastal city for the annual Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KSSHA) meeting.
Every year they leave the conference laden with proposals to reform the secondary education sub-sector, ailing as it is from inefficiencies that threaten to bring it to its knees.
The head teachers' meeting held last week once again came up with several proposals for the Government, some of which have the potential to stabilise the faltering Sh15 billion subsidy plan for students in public secondary schools.
ImplementationFocus now shifts to the Government with industry observers keen to see whether it will adapt the teachers' recommendations this time round despite its hitherto weak implementation record.
Recommendations presented to the Ministry of Education by the Eddah Gachukia-led task force on Affordable Secondary Education in 2007 have not been implemented although educationists believe that they hold the key to reforming the secondary education sub-sector.
The proposals coming out of the head teachers' meeting include calls for a review of the education system to reduce emphasis on examinations as well as calls for the scrapping of the quota system for admitting students to secondary schools.
"There is need for serious reform to be undertaken in the secondary sub-sector" said Mr Cleophas Tirop, chairman of the KSSHA, lamenting,
"our education is teaching-centred; it allows for little creativity, while emphasising on (preparing students for) white collar jobs at the expense of self-reliance."
According to the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR), "The education system in Kenya is in a crisis. Access, equity, curriculum relevance and quality challenges abound despite efforts to minimise the negative effects of these factors, making the internal and external efficiency of the system questionable."
Per the head teachers, the introduction of subsidised secondary education has hurt the quality of learning mainly because it has been encumbered with delays in disbursement of funds.
Other problems that beleaguer secondary school education in the country include a shortage of teachers, scarcity of textbooks and inadequate facilities.
"Focus should be on increasing financial resources for affordable secondary education with emphasis on providing adequate day secondary schools and hiring more teachers, " said Dr Gachukia, the academic director at Riara Group of Schools.
Historic enrolment"A special fund allocation for vocational education should be set up to cater for all Secondary school leavers who do not qualify for higher education."
Government figures show spending on school fees in Kenyan homes already takes up half of household incomes and has risen steadily in the last four years despite government efforts to reduce it through increased public spending on education.
As the economy shrinks and inflation continues to erode parents' incomes, many households are finding it difficult to pay school fees.
This is despite the Sh10,265 annual state subsidy to every student in public schools and the free primary education plan.
In this connection private schools are being criticised for charging exorbitantly high fees even as it is acknowledged that they have played a crucial role in the wake of the introduction of the two social welfare plans in education that have severely strained the existing public school infrastructure as thousands of pupils previously locked out due to poverty troop back into classrooms.
However, "despite the tuition subsidy, the cost of secondary education remains prohibitively high due to boarding expenses which are not catered for by the grants provided," according to statistics in the 2009 Economic Survey.
While the sector is expecting enrolment to hit historic levels in 2010 following last year's introduction of subsidised learning, Government figures show only 81 additional schools -- both private and public-- were built in 2008.
This is a dismal statistic seen against the 827 schools constructed in 2007, an indication that a weakening economy has taken its toll on entrepreneurs in the multi-billion sub-sector.
The secondary education sector is now staring in the face of a looming crisis that would likely see thousands of students unable to gain admission into schools following these revelations that investment in the industry declined sharply last year.
Meanwhile, enrolment in secondary schools rose by 17.1 per cent to 1.3 million students, up from 1.1 million in 2007.
"Upgrading facilities in all secondary schools so as to increase access and ensure quality education will do a great deal," says IPAR in a policy review paper titled Radical Reforms for Kenya's Education Sector: Implementing Policies Responsive to Vision 2030.
Non-teaching staffIn addition, in a bid to reduce the financial burden on individual schools, the head teachers want all non-teaching staff to be absorbed as bona fide civil servants, a proposal unlikely to be adapted by a government already struggling under the weight of a soaring wage bill.
The Gachukia task force had also called for the government to address the issue of the wage disparities facing such workers.
Treasury is currently faced with a Sh100 billion wage bill for the year despite a weakened economy which is likely to negatively impact on revenue collection.
Quota systemThe proposal to abolish the quota system would allow students to join schools of their choice.
Under the current system, whereas national schools must admit students from every province in the country, provincial schools must admit a higher percentage of students from the provinces in which they are situated and district schools must give preference to students from their respective districts.
According to the IPAR paper, "the quota system entrenches disparities in educational achievements, and it should be discarded."
The paper says it does so "because of the inherent disparities in factors such as endowments in resources, traditions and factors that account for the apparent link between a school category and performance of its students in national examinations."
Performance contractsA bid by the Government to place head teachers on performance contracts like other public servants has in the past been met with stiff opposition.
It now appears as though they may be giving in to the performance measurement tool while in the same breath proposing the crafting of a specific new scheme of service for teachers.
The school bosses also decry the extent to which the current education system emphasises grades, especially at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) level.
"The reality is that half of the students sitting the KCSE score mean grades D+ and below, meaning they have no hope of advancing in their education," said Mr Tirop.
"Our education system should allow learners to develop their specific talents and skills."
While closing the conference on Friday, education minister Sam Ongeri said the current school curriculum will be reviewed to make it more responsive to job market needs, saying the system is rigid and gives limited choice to fit diverse individual talents and interests.
For his part, Education permanent secretary Karega Mutahi criticised the secondary school head teachers for emphasising material developments--especially luxury school buses, multipurpose halls and beautiful buildings-- at the expense of learning.
"Even boarding facilities are not as important as constructing and equipping laboratories especially in areas that are not arid, semi-arid or within slums," said Prof Mutahi.
Experts said the challenge issued by Prof Mutahi highlights the extent to which school heads have lost sight of their priorities, compromising education standards and the academic performance of their charges.
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