Why 8-4-4 System of Education in Kenya Requires an Overhaul —By Gachoka Moreys

The current 8-4-4 system of education produces more failures than successes. The system was crafted more than 20 years ago and now it is the high time to revise it or even scrap it. This system reduces the number of students as they climb the ladder of education. Currently, primary schools in Kenya produce about 800,000 graduates from standard eight every year. Out of these students, only 350,000 students enroll for their high school education both in public and private schools. Out of these 350,000 students that enroll in form one each year, only 320,000 students manage to graduate in form four. 60,000 students enroll to universities and about 100,000 students enroll to various colleges and other tertiary institutions in Kenya. This shows that out of 800,000 pupils that graduate every year from primary schools only about 160,000 students that graduates from both colleges and universities and are able to cover-up the 8-4-4 system. The rest 640,000 young men and women are considered as failures. In addition, KCPE and KCSE examinations are used to sieve pupils and students both in primary school and secondary school level. A pupil in primary school takes eight years of study only to be examined for less than twenty hours at the end of eight years. In secondary school level, a student is examined at the end of four years of education. This is one of the reasons of producing more failures since only student with ‘cramming power’ is more recognized. It is also so unfortunate since all those people who are tasked with the responsibility of implementing this system did not even go through the same system.
A pupil in primary school is tasked with covering up-to twelve subjects at one particular time. This means that the pupil concentrates more on passing exams done at every end of term than understanding what he/she is taught. Most of the pupils get confused in the process since most of the subjects done are not even related to each other. Some of the subjects include; Mathematics, Swahili, English, Agriculture, Religious Education like CRE, History, Social Studies, Music, Geography, Science and others. Out of all these subjects, only five are examinable. Proceeding to the secondary school level, the students find themselves stack with a load of up-to twelve subjects especially in form one and form two. In form three a student is allowed to select at least eight subjects according to the cluster of subjects the school is offering. Out of these eight subjects, five are compulsory which includes Mathematics, Kiswahili, English and two Science subjects e.g. Biology, Chemistry or Physics. The remaining three subjects are optional and mainly comprises of humanities, business subjects or Agriculture. This is an indication that by the time a student completes his/her O level he/she is still not sure of his/her career path. Everything is left to the mercy of Joint Admission Board (JAB) which is tasked with selecting students to be admitted to the public universities.
University education in Kenya takes four years, but it also differs according to different courses offered. It is interesting to note that courses such as engineering takes five years to cover, medicine takes six years and other courses such as business courses takes two and half to three years. This system of education (8-4-4) does not address such courses yet it is supposed to address them. It is also noteworthy to point out that private universities and public university are not well aligned.
University Bill 2012 seems to address and align some of these challenges in both private and public universities. For the first time in Kenya, both public and private universities will be governed by single law and will be regulated by Commission for University Education (CUE) which will replace Commission for Higher Education (CHE). If assented into law by the president, this Universities Act 2012 will provide for the accreditation, governance and development of university education. CUE will also closely monitor all the universities programmes. Other interesting points to note are that the president will have no mandate in appointing the public university chancellors who will be selected by the university community and the alumni in accordance with chapter six of the Kenyan constitution. A new board will be formed and will be known as the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) replacing Joint Admission Board (JAB). This board’s mandate will be to admit students in both public universities and colleges. It will also offer career guidance to students enrolling to both public universities and colleges. If everything in this bill is implemented, it will be like an education overhaul in university. The only remaining part will be marching the theory lessons with practical ones especially for technical courses. In my view it should be made compulsory to cover specific practical lessons especially in industries in every semester rather than producing theoretical technical personnel.
Engineering graduates play an important role especially if vision 2030 is to be achieved. These engineering graduates should be given enough support both in the academic world, private sector and by the government, but little is being done by the government of Kenya. A graduate is supposed to register with an engineering body after graduating in order to be able to practice in the industries. Engineering Registration Board which was established through an act of parliament has the mandate of registering these graduates. Unfortunately this is not the case. Most of these engineering graduates are denied this right with a reason that their course of study is not recognized by this board. Currently the universities senates and academic boards are mandated with approving various courses offered in different universities. This reason gives rise to the question that if ERB does not have the mandate of setting up syllabuses for various engineering courses, what is the criterion that they use to establish which course to recognize and which one to deny? To make it worse, ERB even does not register as Engineers those graduates with National Higher Diploma who have done masters degree or doctorate degree outside Kenya irrespective of being registered in other developed countries like Japan (I know of three professors registered in UK and Japan). Furthermore a person with an engineering higher diploma is admitted to second or third year in Bachelor of Science/ engineering degree’s course in public universities while the same graduate is allowed to do masters degree in most of the developed countries like Japan provided they pass an entry-level examination. Imagine spending three years doing diploma, two years doing National Higher Diploma and three years doing degree course and imagine all the repetitions of the same units. A hoping eight years for the first degree! Engineering Bill 2011 tried to address such issues but unfortunately the bill is yet to be enacted. Another engineering body has thereby come up to recognize this group of graduates who have been denied registration by ERB. This body is known as Institution of Engineering Technologists and Technicians (IET). Two bodies will be managing the same cadre of engineering in one nation. It is the high time the Ministry of basic education, Ministry of higher education, Commission of higher education, Joint Admission Board, Engineering Registration Board and other stakeholders sit down together and streamline education system in Kenya and especially 8-4-4.