The proposed new curriculum offers knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that will see learners acquire relevant competencies.
Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said this will help them cope with the challenges and opportunities that they encounter.
The CS said Kenyans need to promote practical, hands-on, project-based creativity and innovation that encourages transfer of knowledge into problem-solving solutions. This will help address the challenges facing communities.
“We are reforming the system to ensure Kenyan education is competitive, predictable, dignified and fit for purpose,” he observed.
He was speaking during a National Curriculum Reforms Conference held Monday at the KICC, Nairobi.
The last curriculum conference was held on March 30, 2016 at the same venue.
Matiang’i said this second national stakeholder forum is significant as it will help usher in the next phase which will be piloting of the curriculum.
“We need our youth to take advantage of the opportunities available to them to create wealth. We need a curriculum that will positively manage our diversity and enhance cohesion of the Kenyan people,” he noted.
“We need to inculcate national values in our youth. We need a youth that takes responsibility for its country, is patriotic, is ethical and exudes integrity! The proposed curriculum begins to answer to some of the needs we aspire to for the youths.”
He noted that the proposed curriculum recognises diversity of the learner in relation to their interests and abilities, as well as the environment, adding that the new curriculum is cognisant of the fact that Kenyan learners will be competitive for the local, regional, and global markets.
The minister noted that the curriculum reforms being proposed at the basic education level, will equally lead to similar reforms at the tertiary education level.
He urged tertiary level institutions, including universities, colleges and technical education institutions to urgently re-examine their curricula with a view to align them with the reforms from the basic education to complete the education cycle in Kenya.
Noting that public interest in education is great and legitimate; the CS said the curricular will make Kenya one of the highly skilled and educated societies that takes advantage of the new order.
He said the Ministry is now in the process of ensuring that every learner has a unique identifier under the Education Data Management Information System (EMIS) project. This will provide a single source of truth that will guide in planning and disbursement of education capitation. “We are working with the Ministry of Interior and Health to implement the Personal Registration Number that will see every student in Kenya adopting a globally unique 6 character Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) ,” he noted.
He said the UPI will be used at every stage of the student’s education.
The implementation of this system will lead to better, personalised educational service delivery, and constrain the unfortunate resource leakage that has plagued the education sector.
The reformative project will ensure all learners are adequately supported, bring accountability for government funds and provide accurate and reliable data on the Kenyan learner.
--mygov.go.ke