THE HISTORY OF KENYAN SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

 

A Photo of some Kenyan pupils in class
Source: Getty images

Kenya began a campaign for free primary education immediately after getting back its education from the British in the year 1963. As a result of this, the Kenyan system of education has undergone has undergone several transformations. Such transformations included changing from the colonial system of education to the Eastern African Community system of education, then finally to the Kenyan system which has also undergone some transformations too.

In Kenya, before the elementary system of education was based on colonial system of education which violated Kenyans and Africans at large in different ways. For example, during the colonial period, Africans, that is Kenyans attended colonial schools where they were trained mostly on manual works such as masonry, carpentry and farm work while their counterparts, (Europeans) were being trained for official works so as to supervise the Africans.

Before the invasion of the colonialists in Kenya, Kenyans had started learning western education through the missionaries who had established learning institutions in different parts of the country such as Rabai, where they taught Kenyans both Christianity and the western education. Missionaries after establishing contacts with Kenyans they built schools such as; the Tumu Tumu girls which they established in the year 1908 around the coastal region. After these missionaries also established Thongoto school which is currently referred to as; Thongoto Teachers Training College in the year 1910.

After attaining independency, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania formed the East African Community, abbreviated as EAC in the year 1967. It is so unfortunate to notice that these three countries attained their independence one after the other, whereby Tanzania was the first country amongst the three to acquire its independence in the year 1961, under the leadership of Julius Nyerere, followed by Uganda which got its independence in the year 1962 led by Milton Obote, then finally Kenya which got its independence in the year 1963 under the leadership of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who was also the leader of Kenya Africa National Union, acronymed as KANU.

Therefore, after the three countries gained their independence, they merged together and formed the East African Community. As a community, the three countries adopted a single system of education, and such system was the 7-4-2-3 system of education which consisted of: seven years in primary school education, four years of secondary school education, two years of high school education, and finally three to five years of university education.

The East African Community system of education was no different from the British system of education which was Kenya and Uganda colony. In this system of education, children began their primary education at the age of around seven years and completed it at the age of around thirteen years after sitting for a regional examination which was known as the East African Certificate of Primary Education abbreviated as the E.A.C.P.E.

Under the system of the East African Community system of education, secondary education was not for all and after the primary education, those who passed very well proceeded to the secondary school where they undertook their secondary school education, which ended after four years and sitting for a regional exam which was referred to as the East African Certificate of Education Examination abbreviated as E.A.C.E

With the East African Community system of education, the highest level of education which qualified one to attend or join the university was attained after two years of high school education, where the entry to the high school education was achieved through attainment of a distinction from the secondary school. The sitting and writing of the East African Advanced Certificate of Education marked the end of the high school education, and the starting of the university education to those who wished to further their studies.

Later on, the East African Community organization collapsed, and with the collapsing of the East African Community in 1977, Kenya continued with similar system of education but changed their examination names from the regional identity to a national identity. In this case, the East African Certificate of Primary Education (E.A.C.P.E) Was changed to Kenya Certificate of Education (K.C.E) as the East Advanced Certificate of Education changed to Kenya Advanced Certificate of Education (K.A.C.E)

The above system of education was maintained for some years until when Moi into power and changed it once again. In the year 1985, the late president Moi introduced the 8-4-4 system of education which adopted eight years of primary education, four years of secondary school education, and finally four years of university education.

With the introduction of the 8-4-4 system of education, Certificate of Primary School Education (C.P.E) was changed to K.C.P.E, which stands for Kenya Certificate of Primary School Education; K.C.E was changed to K.C.S.E which stands for Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Education. This system of education was a bit simpler and better, thus led to opening up of more educational institutions which include both public and private institutions, ranging from primary schools all the way to the tertiary institutions. The 8-4-4 system is currently being replaced by the Competence Based Curriculum (C.B.C), another form of Kenyan education system that was introduced in the year 2017

 REFERENCES

1.Revisiting Education Reforms in Kenya: A case of Competence Based Curriculum. Refer by clicking here

2. Is the Kenyan System Ready For Change? A pilot Study. To read further, click here 

3.Education quality and the Kenyan 8-4-4 curriculum: Secondary school learners’ experiences. click here to read