NN40, May 2008
Education for Sustainable Development? Or The Sustainability of Education Investment? A Special Issue
National policies and practices for education, skills and sustainable growth: The Kenyan case
By Lillian Boit, Kenyatta University
Email: chepngetichbot@yahoo.comNational policies are indeed the road maps of practices in education in any country. However, the degree to which they succeed will depend on certain variables; environment, resources, political, economic capacity and the implementation process.
The Kenyan case:
Kenyan education has been guided by policy guidelines since independence.
Policy documents have been in the form of commissions, presidential working parties, committees and development plans to guide education practice. To enhance clarification we shall also provide connection to international trends which the government has consulted, e.g. international conventions such as those of UNICEF, and the development partners (Oduol 2006).
Policy is a government statement of interest to carry out an activity. In this case the government spells out the policy and the period for that policy. The nature of policy also provides standardization, uniformity and gives confidence to the service provider. At the same time, policy, when published, assures the client of unbiased service through standardization and uniformity.
In Kenya, since independence, education was always predominantly a government responsibility which provided most resources required as per policy. However, over the years resources have dwindled and the needs have been exponential. The challenge has been the growth in public schools to keep up with population increase but the resources have not improved significantly. Government response had been to create and introduce policy measures such as cost sharing so that education could still be provided albeit with many challenges for poorer families.
Growth in both primary and secondary schools has stretched the government?s capacity to provide education services. Resource provisions have entailed teachers, school buildings and checking of school fees and levies to manageable levels. The cost sharing policy relieved the government but pressure persists because demand for teachers continues due to increase in student enrolment, while checked by natural teacher attrition. The Free Primary Education (FPE) is a case in point that was implemented by the current government when it came to power in 2003. The growth in primary school enrolment demanded an expanded teaching force, new classrooms and building of more schools or other approaches to provide learning. The Arid and Semi Arid regions that are sparsely populated present new paradigms beyond current practice to provide access, parity and inclusive education to a nomadic population. The challenges to government therefore, given the above scenario are enormous as questions of sustainability become ever more pointed.
There are issues also related to the genesis of the policy in place. Is the policy needs-based or is it externally inspired and generated? If external, how grounded or domesticated is it, if it is to achieve the necessary support for growth and sustainability. Many Third World economies have continued to struggle with the result that development partners have often supplemented local economies to meet policy implementation. However, there have been controversies over the external support that sometimes comes with strings. When not fulfilled the support may be withheld, which may undo other successes in substantive areas of the economy.
There are complications related to policy matters observed by Oduol who argued that evidence-based approach to policy is not always practiced. Evidence may fail to address the needs of the policy maker, or it may be too close to concerns of the opposing political side. On one hand the policy interpreters may fail to capture the spirit and relevance of current policy. While on the other there may be a failure to achieve a critical mass among policy makers to effectively determine or establish relationships in policy.
In Kenya education has served several functions, among which are; to unify the country and create nationhood (single curriculum, single instructional language); provide basic skills at basic education; to create purpose and determination among citizens and to be developmental and incremental (provide equity, access, efficiency and gender parity)
Education practices are affected by policy guidelines. Perhaps the biggest challenge here is the lack of connection between desired education practices as espoused in policy and the actual education practices on the ground. Disconnect between the two dichotomies, brings into fore the state of skills that the schools are supposed to engender. The latest and most dramatic public policy is the Free Primary Education (FPE), which came at the time when education in Kenya had become too expensive for ordinary citizens. In particular, both primary and secondary schools regardless of being private or public were beset by ever-rising school fees. The 2003 FPE initiative brought relief but it has had challenges. Initially, the initiative brought back to school many students that had either dropped out of school or never started school because of high fee levies. Today we have an 84-year-old man who decided to start school because he never had a chance in his youth. He is one of a few octogenarians braving the morning chill to get to school by 8 am. There are others in their teens or young adults, still others, married women opting to relegate child and house minding in exchange of school uniform and homework. Free Primary Education initiative has indeed created a lot of excitement and interest.
The government put out a roll out strategy to address the FPE initiative in the Kenya Education Sector Strategic Plan 2003-2007 whose goals are:
? Attainment of Education For All by 2015
? Universal Primary Education by 2005
? Transition rate from primary to secondary of 70% by 2007
? Reduced disparity in participation
? Increased quality and relevance to National Development needs and aspirations
? Improved access.
The challenges however remain especially in the areas of sustainability, parity, access, and equity as well as full implementation of the initiative.
That Free Primary Education is actually compulsory was evidenced by one man in 2007, who had to spend time in jail for not adhering to this rule and another violently losing his child to the authorities who yanked the child away from the herd of cattle and sheep the only livelihood of the poor blind pastoralist father. The poor ailing man had sent other children to school but had designated this one to stay home as his father?s eyes and minder. Because the incidence was nationally televised the event depicted an old forlorn man left destitute. This brings to fore the need for policies to be interconnected and supportive to enhance chances of success. Here the sustainability of the policy was very different from the sustainability of the individual family.
Following the National Conference on Education in November 2003, the Sessional Paper No.1 2005 was developed to guide the government. This Sessional paper looked at the history of the policy documents that have guided education since independence in 1963 to date. Among the policies were, the Ominde Report of 1964 that ?recognized education as a basic human right and a powerful tool for human resource and national development. While the Kamunge Report of1988 ?focused on improving education financing, quality and relevance. In this Sessional Paper No1 2005 the government is emphatic on certain issues and states that ?it will take affirmative action to compensate for historical and emerging inequalities and disparities in all areas in ?nation building. This is a very powerful statement that implies major changes in practice if the political will for success is to prevail. Unfortunately, current practice is still far from reflecting the policy intentions and there are other policies in operation that seem to negate the same spirit of equity creation.
Policies have therefore a long tradition in guiding the government to implement its intentions. But policy making is different from policy implementation; and policy implementation is very different from policy sustainability.
Bibliography
Kenya Education Sector Support Programme 2005-2014
Oduol, Truphena. 2006 Towards the making of education policy in Kenya: Conclusions and implications. International Education Journal, 2006, 7(4) 466-479.
http://iej.com.au.
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