The benefits of 2-6-3-3-3 education system will outweigh those of the previous systems in Kenya

  

Date Posted: 2/18/2017 10:28:12 AM

Posted By: Abced  Membership Level: Gold  Total Points: 1085

---

Education is actually an instructive experience. In Kenya,both the formal and informal education exist.Formal education was administered by the colonial government after being introduced by the missionaries.The system adopted by the government by then was 7-4-2-3 system.A student had to spend seven years in primary,four years in lower secondary, two years in upper secondary, and three years in tertiary level.This system was first practiced in 1963.The main aim of the system was to nurture skilled workers who would hold positions previously held by the British. This structure was similar to the British system of education.Pupils sat for a regional exam known as East African Certificate of Primary Education (EACPE) at the end of seven years.Students who passed proceeded to lower secondary where they sat for East African Certificate of Education(EACE) at the end of four years.Successful students joined upper secondary where they sat for East African Advanced Certificate of Education (EAACE) at the end of two years.Around 1977,Kenya changed the names of examininations but continued with the system.EACPE became Certificate of Primary Education (CPE),EACE became Kenya Certificate of Education (KCE) and EAACE became Kenya Advanced Certificate of Education (KACE).

Another system was adopted to replace 7-4-2-3 system.This was an 8-4-4 system that was established in 1985 in the reign of President Daniel Moi.With this system CPE became Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE),KCE became Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). This is still the current system which allows a student to spend 8 years in primary school, four years in secondary school and another four years in tertiary level.Steady growth of public and private schools and institutions has been observed across the country with many students preferring to further education with the emergency of free education.The percentage of students joining higher institutions is on the rise.Students can choose to go to

public or private universities, business and vocational training institutions or polytechnics.

There is a proposed system that will see education in Kenya take another direction, a positive one in fact.The system is 2-6-3-3-3.It will see students spend two years in preprimary, six years in primary, three years in junior secondary, three years in senior secondary and finally three years in tertiary institution.

The 2-6-3-3-3 system will have the following benefits:

1.It will be skills-oriented other than exam oriented.Students Will be able to acquire all round skills ranging from sports, academics, choir,etc.The students will be judged on how he/she displays the skills but not whether he/she passed the exam.

2.The system will allow specialization for students.While at senior secondary,students will go for the subjects they are best suited.It will allow students excel because they will only select their areas of interest.

3.Quality of examination will be realized. Continuous assessment tests(CATs) will be taken seriously since they will be part of the overall performance of a student. All the CATs taken thought any phase,say primary or secondary, will be calculated to come up with a cumulative grade.

4.Cheating and examination irregularities will reduce greatly.Since national examination will be scrapped off,the attempts of schools engaging in exam cheating will die since their will be no need of schools competing each other.Schools will be forced to take another route of teaching i.e upholding student's choice of area of specialization.

5.Students will express their talents and abilities alongside academic work.The current system has totally neglected other areas of interests such that teachers spend all the time pushing students to pass exams.But what if a student is poor in academic work but good at soccer, singing, drawing, etc?This student will be punished for poor performance but never given a chance and support in expressing other skills apart from academics.

6.Success in many companies' performance will be realized. Since the system will be no longer examination oriented,students will no longer be only interested in passing exams but also nurturing the required skills in their fields of specialization. This system will see success in many students' future since they will only deal with what they understand best.The current system allows students to choose courses to the university or college on attaining the required cluster points obtained from all the seven subjects,even though the fail subjects may not be related to the particular course at all.

---

Next: Biogas production and its benefits
Previous: Possible signs of Labour and it's management