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Kenya: New education system to lay emphasis on continuous assessment

2016/12/30

A proposed curriculum to be unveiled next year at a conference stresses continuous assessment tests over summative evaluation.

While releasing the 2016 KCSE examination results on Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said the changes would focus on continuous evaluation.

“This will require reforming of teacher training framework, a retraining of critical actors in the evaluation chain and a relook at the spectrum of assessment,” the minister said.

“We have to take the result of each examination seriously and seek to analyse the lessons we draw from them.”

The statement by the Kenya Institute of curriculum Development shows the system has been organised into Early Years Education, Middle School Education and Senior School.

The Country has learnt that one of the options the National Curriculum Conference is likely to be presented with is from a 2012 statement by a task force chaired by Prof Douglas Odhiambo, which proposed the scrapping of the 8-4-4 system of education.

SYSTEM CRITICISED

It recommended a 2-6-3-3-3 system “which will ensure learners acquire competences and skills to meet the human resource aspirations of Vision 2030 blueprint”.

The current system has been widely criticised for being expansive, heavily loaded with content and too examinations-oriented, which put undue pressure on learners. The system has been in existence since 1985.

The cabinet secretary asked education stakeholders to study and analyse the KCSE examination results and answer critical questions.

“Do children cover the syllabus adequately? What life-long skills are they gaining over the course of their learning? Are we stressing on assessments? These are indeed critical questions that we must keep asking as we interpret the results being released today (Thursday),” he said.

Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia underscored the centrality of integrity and credibility of examination results.

“I am excited that we shall be issuing quality certificates that will open doors to our children globally without them being made to sit entry exams,” she said.

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