Nairobi — The Presidential Working Party on Education Reform (PWPER) has proposed the scrapping of the four-tier clustering of public secondary schools in favor a career-oriented categorisation dividing schools into three.
In its final report presented to President William Ruto on Tuesday, the Prof. Raphael Munavu-led team recommended three broad clusters namely; STEM, Social Science and Arts, and Sports Science.
"Ministry of Education to discontinue categorisation of public Secondary Schools from the current nomenclature (National, Extra-County, County, and Sub-County) to career pathways at Senior School," PWPER proposed.
The proposed model will mark a departure from the prevailing classification of public secondary schools into national and sub-national groups with the former category considered giants attracting cut-throat competition from across the country.
PWPER explained that stakeholders had raised concerns over existing cluster saying it has promoted exclusion and unfair resource allocation.
"The current categorisation of schools is unfair as national schools are more
advanced in terms of resources while county and sub-county schools are
lagging behind," the task force reported one respondent as having said.
Further, respondents are said to have termed boarding schools which make up a significant proportion of top-tier schools as expensive to most parents, making them
inaccessible to bright but needy learners.
In its proposals, the working party recommended the establishment of low-cost
boarding schools in marginalised areas as well resource support for sub-county schools to enable build capacity for the three pathways.
PWPER said the move will enhance equity and inclusion while emphasising on the need to enhance infrastructural support.
The task force recommended a senior school placement criteria based on performance and personal interest with computation of Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) scores based on Mathematics, English or Kiswahili, and five other best performed subjects.
In other proposals, the working party recommended a comprehensive school system with Pre-Primary to Grade 9 levels domiciled under one institution with a single school head.
The Munavu team proposed the adoption of a 2-6-3-3-3 Education Structure with 2 years Pre-Primary School; 6 years Primary School, 3 years Junior School (JS), 3 years Senior School (SS) and a minimum of 3 years at University.
"TSC [should] provide career progression guidelines for teachers in comprehensive schools; and provide guidelines on Alternative Provision of Basic Education and Training," the report read in part.
The working party also proposed rationalisation of subjects in primary and secondary schools to address content overload, gaps and overlaps in a bid to enhance learning outcomes.
The team proposed not more than five subjects for pre-primary level, at most seven in lower primary (Grade I-III) and not more than eight in upper primary (Grade IV-VI).
In secondary schools, the Munavu team recommended that learning areas should not exceed nine in junior [secondary] school (Grade VII-IX) and not more than seven in senior school (Grade X-XII).
Additionally, the Munavu-led task force recommended an extensive review to "reduce overload, overlaps, cost and promote community linkages".
The task force also proposed KNEC-led reforms geared at restructuring Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA).
Under the proposed framework the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) will have an expanded role in monitoring learners' progress and providing feedback to stakeholders.
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While rooting for the adoption of the pilot model where KPSEA assessments are not used as a placement tool, PWPER recommended development of an assessment framework for Alternative Provision for Basic Education and Training.
The task force also proposed development of mechanisms for administering assessments within the school daily routine.
The Munavu-led team proposed computation of Grace VI KPSEA grades as a cumulative score of School Based Assessments (SBAs) for Grade IV-VI.
The task force recommend that Grade IX SBAs too comprise 20 per cent of KPSEA, 20 per cent of SBAs in Grade VII and VIII and 60 per cent summative evaluation at Grade IX.
In Grade XII, the computed grade will comprise 70 per cent of summative assessment and 30 per cent including Community Service Learning, values and competencies.
