ANALYSIS OF EDUCATION REFORMS AND CHALLENGES IN KENYA: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This paper explores education reforms in Kenya. It has presented the concern of education reforms from a historical point of view. An exploration of education reforms has been traced from the colonial period (1908-1963) up till the post-colonial era. The paper is built from both empirical and theoretical sources. The researcher also used both community and school walkabouts to get oral data. Before focusing on education reforms in Kenya and the related challenges, aspects of education reforms in Pakistan, Indonesia, Gambia, Benin, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Mali have been discussed to form the basis of literature review. Education reforms in the independent Kenya include proposals of Ominde Education Commission of 1964, the Gachathi Education Commission of 1976 that brought about 7-4-2-3 Education System, the Mackay Education Commission of 1981 that led to the implementation of 8-4-4 Education System, and the Douglas Odhiambo (Taskforce, 2012) that proposed the Competency Based Curriculum (2-6-6-3)(Amukoa,2003), an education reform whose implementation is on-going since its introduction in 2017. The paper concludes that coming up with education reform proposals in Kenya was necessary. However, there were challenges that impeded effective implementation of these reforms, especially the Competency Based Curriculum. These include in effective assessment strategy, inadequate funding, unclear understanding of CBC, antagonism on domiciling Junior Secondary School, teacher shortages, inadequate teaching and learning facilities and parents’ concern.