Education Principal Secretary Dr Belio Kipsang. Photo: capitalfm.co.ke
The government is committed to enhancing the capacity of teachers of Kenya with a view to providing quality education to the children of Kenya.
“We shall ensure that the capacity of teachers is enhanced,” Education PS Dr. Belio Kipsang said, noting that the quality of education was as good as the quality of the teachers.
The Principal Secretary spoke this during the launch of Education for Sustainable Development Policy for the Education Sector at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, are a global framework to coordinate efforts around ending poverty and hunger, combating inequality and disease, and building a just and stable world.
There are 17 goals in all and nations represented at the U. N. agreed to them. One goal — Goal 4 — specifically aims to eensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is about enabling countries to constructively and creatively address present and future global challenges and create more sustainable and resilient societies.
Dr. Kipsang said the Ministry had embarked on identifying and addressing gaps in policy planning, management and Monitoring & Evaluation and address challenges that impede provision of quality education to learners.
He said the Ministry seeks to address these challenges through national curriculum reforms to make it competency based, flexible and synchronized with the job market, introduction of strong pathway which also provides for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in the national curriculum and education system, institutionalization of learning assessment by developing a learning assessment framework alongside the ongoing curriculum reform.
Dr. Kipsang said the Ministry was committed to ensuring ESD was mainstreamed into Educational Institutions and into the curriculum as the country undertook curriculum reforms.
Under the Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) countries are expected to generate and scale up action in all levels and areas of education and learning to accelerate progress towards sustainable development.
They are supposed to reorient education and learning so that everyone has the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that empowers them to contribute to sustainable development and to strengthen education and learning in all agendas, programmes and activities that promote sustainable development.
Also present during the launch included the Secretary for National Commission for UNESCO, Dr. Evangeline Njoka, Director Policy, Mr. Mogaka Ogutu, Chairman Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Mudzo Nzili, Regional Coordinators of Education, and County Directors’ of Education and Teachers Service Commission officials in the field among other