Education reforms: ‘Secondary’ title scrapped as subjects reduced, mandatory community service introduced

Pupils and students in the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) education chain will now have less workload following the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms.

The report has slashed the subjects taught in Junior Schools from 14 to nine, alongside the dropping of the name ‘secondary’ from junior and senior levels of education for the basic level of education.

The changes also introduce mandatory community service for students transitioning from Senior School to universities and TVET institutions, and as they graduate from tertiary institutions.

The implementation of the CBC system of education into the country, and especially the maiden transition into Junior Secondary has been fraught with a myriad of challenges; from few and ill-prepared teachers to limited learning materials and inadequate infrastructure, schools have struggled to implement learning at this level.

Lower primary pupils will have 7 subjects from the current 9; those in Upper Primary have their subjects reduced from 12 to 8; while those in Junior school will now undertake learning in 9 subjects down from the current 14.

Those in Senior schools will be examined on a total of seven subjects; Mathematics and one of either Kiswahili or English being compulsory. 

The name ‘secondary’ has been dropped from junior and senior schools, with students transitioning from junior schools to senior schools that will no longer be categorised as present.

The schools now known as national, extra-county, county and sub-county will now be known as career pathway schools.

There will be three pathways: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics or STEM; Social Sciences; and Arts and Sports Science.

The report proposes that STEM pathways are offered in 60 per cent of the schools. The Ministry of Education has also been tasked with ensuring that sub-county senior schools are well-resourced and supported to offer the three pathways.

Before joining an institution of higher learning, senior school students will undertake a three-month mandatory community service programme, with a further nine months,  once they graduate from tertiary institutions, a certificate of compliance issued after this will be required of them before they join the job markets.

The Working Group's recommendations will ease the financial burden by limiting to two textbooks per subject, the number of books to be bought, as well as tasking the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to facilitate the printing of the assessment material, a cost that has been passed onto the parents and teachers.

The reforms will also see quality assurance in the education sector moved from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) where it is currently domiciled to the Ministry of Education, which is also tasked with ensuring the retooling of teachers to be CBC compliant. 

All graduate teachers will be required to undergo a mandatory one-year retooling program, while the admission of teachers into the profession will be premised on them completing a mandatory one-year internship program.