End of an Era: 39-Year KCPE Journey Culminates with Final Results Release
Cabinet Secretary for Education Mr. Ezekiel Machogu on Thursday released the results for the last cohort of the 8-4-4 system of education in primary school. The curtains have come down on a curriculum that has run for thirty-nine good years.
The retired education system had over twenty-six million students in thirty-nine cohorts pass through it. Indeed, it went beyond the borders when the nascent State of Southern Sudan took it between 2005 and 2008 as its national examination.
Non-citizens who sat for the KCPE this year were 103,000. Mr. Machogu has also promised to ensure that the government will administer a special examination in January 2024 to around 9, 354 students who registered for this final KCPE examination but did not sit for it.
Formal education
Formal education is an organized form of learning whose aim is to transmit knowledge, skills, and attitudes to individuals. To try to analyze the 8-4-4 system of education based on this confluence would be a bit too harsh. Many critics attest to the fact that the 8-4-4 system of education transmitted knowledge to many students, and it also transferred skills to many more but we would almost talk of nothing about the “self-sufficiency” of the products of the 8-4-4 system of education, as this largely remained a mirage throughout the years it ran.
To compound its drawbacks, the 8-4-4 system was eventually captured by corruption cartels. The cartels rightly observed that all that mattered in the retired education system was good grades, straight away they embarked on business.
They had buyers falling over themselves to buy the right results for their schools or their children… sick for lack of merit and dogged by scandals each year of exam cheating at particular schools, there seemed no respite for the old system. A fact that haunts the system to its retirement.
The Genesis of 8-4-4 system of education
The 8-4-4 system of education in Kenya was the second system of education that took over from the first 7-4-2-3 curriculum, a colonial legacy that the Moi administration changed with the promise to bring in a system of education tailored to Kenya’s needs and more specifically to prepare the products of Kenya’s education system for self-sufficiency.
In 1981, a Presidential Working Party was commissioned to examine the local education curriculum to reform the entire education system in the country. The committee submitted a recommendation to change the 7-4-2-3 education system to the 8-4-4 system of education, whose overall structure was similar to the U.S. education system.
The 8-4-4 system was launched in January 1985 and was designed to provide eight years of primary education, four years of secondary, and four years of university education. Emphasis was placed on Mathematics, English, and vocational subjects. The focus on vocational education was aimed at preparing students who would not proceed with secondary education, those who would be self-employed, and those who would be seeking employment in the non-formal sector.
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From the foregoing, it is obvious that the proponents of the 8-4-4 system had a noble cause in introducing the now-shelved system of education. The 8-4-4 system, as an education policy, would orient youths towards self-employment. It purposed to strongly emphasize attitudinal and skills preparations for the workplace and more so on self-employment. The new policy would improve the product’s employment potential and therefore make them self-reliant.
Since attaining political independence in 1963, Kenya has continued to invest in education with the hope that this would help transform the country into a modern progressive state. In the financial year 2023/4, the education sector received the largest share of the national budget, with a total allocation of Sh628. 6 billion, representing 27.4 percent of planned national expenditure.
Protracted Underfunding in the education sector
The 8-4-4 system of education suffered from poor implementation, poor resource allocation to the sector, and poor capitation. As time by, the 8-4-4 system of education became more content-based and delivered less on skills acquisition and self-sufficiency attainment. This was largely a result of decades of underfunding, the politicization of many processes such as staffing, and the neglect of schools in far-flung areas of the country to the detriment of its residents.
Another disadvantage of the 8-4-4 system was the high expenses. It required learners to pay for tuition fees, textbooks, uniforms, transport, boarding facilities, and other expenses that are beyond the reach of many low-income families. The system also does not provide adequate infrastructure and resources such as classrooms, teachers, libraries, laboratories, and computers to cater to the large number of enrolments. Moreover, the system does not address the issues of inequality and marginalization that affect many learners from rural areas, slums, nomadic communities, and special needs groups.
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8-4-4 was legendary for its rigidity and exam orientation. It put pressure on learners to perform well in the same national examinations in class eight and form four. These examinations were deal makers and breakers; do you proceed with your learning or not? It did not allow for customization of the curriculum to suit the needs and abilities of different learners. Therefore, many learners were stressed out, suffered from burnout, and low self-esteem due to high expectations and competition.
Lastly, the 8-4-4 system did not sufficiently prepare learners for the changing workspace. The system focuses more on rote learning and memorization than on critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The system did not incorporate emerging issues such as globalization, environmental conservation, and the rule of law, among others, into its curriculum. Additionally, 8-4-4 is mal-aligned with the reality of the current workspace as most 8-4-4 graduates lacked innovation, adaptability, and skills in communication, collaboration, and creativity.
Meaningful education
The present society values teaching that promotes an active role for students as they frown at a scenario where teachers merely impart knowledge as students passively receive the knowledge; both teachers and learners should collaborate in the process as this encourages the use of problem-solving approach and helps in evaluating persistent human problems to find realistic solutions to them.
If this could be practiced in our schools, learners are most likely to be critical, creative, and self-reliant if they are well-resourced. Education is a means for socioeconomic change. Therefore, a curriculum must be reviewed often to produce people with skills in demand at this point as well as align it to the best standards serving the global labor market.
As many countries shift away from content-based curricula to competency-based curricula, Kenya’s move in this direction is commendable but what will anchor the ship is good implementation which can only be made possible by sufficient resources for the sector.
The Silver linings of the 8-4-4 system of education
The 8-4-4 system provided a broad curriculum that covered various subjects and disciplines. It desires to equip learners with knowledge, skills, and values that are relevant to their personal and national development. 8-4-4 equipped learners with practical and vocational competencies in subjects such as art, agriculture, home science, business studies, and computer studies, to prepare them for self-reliance and entrepreneurship.
It offered opportunities for learners to pursue their talents through extra-curricular activities in sports, music, drama, and clubs. These helped to nurture the physical, social, and emotional well-being of learners, as well as to develop their leadership and teamwork skills. It also emphasized learners to participate in community service and environmental conservation projects, which fostered a sense of responsibility and citizenship.
It has produced many graduates who have excelled in various fields and sectors both locally and internationally. These graduates have demonstrated that the 8-4-4 system can produce quality and competitive human capital that can contribute to the social and economic development of the country and the world.
End of an Era: 39-Year KCPE Journey Culminates with Final Results Release