The task force President William Ruto appointed early in his administration to reform the education system has delivered on its mandate. Its report is a milestone that contains recommendations that should radically reform the education system from pre-primary to the tertiary level and complete the shift from the four-decade-old 8-4-4 to the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Fully implemented, the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform (PWPER) proposals will rejig the education sector. It seems worth the time, efforts, money, expertise and other resources that have gone into dissecting the current malaise.
Quite significant is a plan to reduce the academic load for learners in primary and junior secondary school (JSS). The criticism of the current education system has been an overload that exhausts, especially the younger pupils. And parents will be pleased to hear that the team has addressed the high cost of the CBC, already flagged as a major challenge. The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) will have to reduce the number of learning areas from Grade 1 to JSS.
Discontinuation of the classification of schools as national, extra-county, county or sub-county will end the cut-throat competition for secondary school slots. Also recommended is a programme similar to the defunct National Youth Service pre-university programme. Teacher training will also move from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to the Ministry of Education. Thus, TSC will now focus fully on staffing.
The recommendation to increase funding for education will see pre-primary level, which has been unfunded, financed at Sh1,170 per learner annually with the primary school capitation almost doubled to Sh2,238 annually. Learners in senior school will get Sh22,527 per year, up from Sh22,244.
There are many other good proposals that should also be quickly fully implemented. The report should not be left to gather dust on the shelves like many before it. After all, it contains clear timelines when each of the action points should be acted upon and the ministry or agency concerned. These should be strictly and meticulously followed.