Teachers' unions, school heads fight for 8-4-4 system

By Athman Amran

The National Conference on Education turned into forum to fight against the proposed replacement of 8-4-4 system of education with a four-tier academic scheme that would cost Sh340 billion to implement.

Stakeholders in the education sector rejected proposal by the Government to replace the learning structure introduced by retired President Moi in 1985, with 2-6-6-3 regime.

Moi replaced the previous 7-4-2-3 system of education with eight years of primary, four years of secondary, and four years of university education.

In the proposed academic programme pupils will spend two years in Early Childhood Development Education, six years in primary, another six years in secondary, and minimum of three years at the university.

Secondary education will be divided into junior and senior levels in the new proposal.

Leading the resistance were the influential Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), and Kenya Secondary Schools Head Teachers Association (KSSHA).

The Government depends on these interest groups to run the education sector.

The groups participating at the conference in Nairobi argued the Government should instead train and employ more teachers and build infrastructure to accommodate pupils after Standard Eight.

Through voting by acclamation, the stakeholders pushed the Government to first strengthen the current education system and incorporate Information Communication Technology, environmental, ethics, adult, and special education in the curriculum.

They were discussing the report of the task force on the re-alignment of the education section to the new Constitution, which had proposed major changes to the education system.

Shortage of teachers

They argued that the teaching of Christian Religious Education and Islamic Religious Education was not enough. They expressed concern children as young as nine indulge in drug and alcohol abuse. "We should retain the 8-4-4 system and improve it. We cannot waste Sh340 billion and say we have a new system. Resources matter," argued Kuppet Vice-Chairman Julius Korir.

He said education stakeholders should not agree to phase out the 8-4-4 system of education.

Knut senior executive officer Ekirapa Okwara explained the giant union recommends the improvement of 8-4-4 system and employment of more teachers.

"We have a shortage of 80,000 teachers. We will need an equivalent number in secondary schools," Mr Okwara said.

He said the Sh340 billion needed to implement the new system should be used in employment of more teachers. "Let us maintain the structure. We recommend that the money goes to the employment of teachers, teacher education, and infrastructure," Okwara said.

KSSA chairman Cleophas Tirop also said the 8-4-4 system of education should remain. "Let us fix the gaps and challenges and make it work," he said.

"Majority want the 8-4-4 system, but they want it enriched," concluded the chairman of a panel on structure and curriculum of education system Muriuki Njeru.

Fifty-five participants voted that the system be retained, while only 17 wanted the implementation of the proposed system while a few abstained.

Speakers at the forum said the Government should include early childhood education without having to change the 8-4-4 system of education.

The Task Force, which had collected public views from across the country, had concluded that numerical titles such as 8-4-4 failed to indicate what the education system represents.

"The new system should therefore focus on childhood development, skills and competencies to be learnt at each level from Early Childhood Care and Development to University," it recommends.

The Task Force had proposed a system where there would be Pre-Primary, Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Junior Secondary, and Senior Secondary as pre-university education stages.

The report also said the competencies, and skills will enable learners to meet the human resource aspirations of Vision 2030 by offering a choice of subjects and career paths.

But the education stakeholders argued such skills could be incorporated in the curriculum, which they said should be immediately reviewed without abolishing the 8-4-4 system of education.

Speakers at the forum said they had no problem with the curriculum proposed by the Task Force, but wanted the current curriculum immediately reviewed to accommodate aspects of the proposed system.

Among subjects proposed by the Task Force are communication skills, social skills, environmental awareness, and foundation of moral and ethical values, foundation of talent identification, talent enhancement, Information Communication Technology, and entrepreneurship, among others. "Further the structure should allow all learners to transit from one level to the next until they are 18 yeas of age," the report said.

But Knut, Kuppet and KSSA said building more secondary schools and employing more teachers would solve the issue of transition to the next level without having to change the 8-4-4 model.

Academic calendar

The participants also unanimously voted for the retention of the January to December school calendar instead of September to August, which they argued was foreign-oriented. Kenya has no summer and winter seasons, they said. Former Education minister Sam Ongeri had proposed this change so that during exams at the end of the year, only candidates would be in school. He said this would help curb cheating.

In Prof Ongeri’s plan, first and second terms would be longer and the breaks shorter, but third term would only run for two months, followed by a two-month Christmas break.

But the Task Force proposes term one runs for 13 weeks (January to April), followed by a four-week vacation in April.

The second term also would have 13 weeks from May to July, followed by another four-week break in August. Term three, the shortest, follows after August vacation and ends with four-week Christmas break.

It also proposed a community outreach programme in between the school terms. A member of the Task Force Samuel Maneno said he felt the proposals were within what Kenyans wanted.

"We feel the Task Force needs to sit down and move on the basis of what was proposed," Maneno said.

The objective of the conference was to validate the Task Force Report for the Ministry of Education to push its reform agenda in line with the new Constitution.