The government plans to introduce a new, trim and focused curriculum in schools in 2010.

Already the curriculum developer -- the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) -- has convened a series of meetings with key interest groups to discuss the review process.

The latest consultative meeting took place at Utalii Hotel late last month and finalised the arrangements for data collection.

According to a senior deputy director of KIE, Dr Laban Ayiro, pilot data collection begins this week in selected districts across the country.

The proper data collection will follow in October and end in November. The proposed curriculum review will include visits to schools, public hearings and presentations across the country.

This will be followed by data analysis before the final report on the new curriculum. After that, KIE will start developing the syllabuses and then publishers will be guided to prepare new books and other teaching and learning materials.

Also planned are refresher training courses for teachers to equip them for the new curriculum. KIE Director Lydia Nzomo says the review will rationalise the content of subjects in the curriculum, bridge existing gaps and cover new areas of knowledge.

She says the review will also provide an opportunity to incorporate emerging issues such as conflict resolution and values of nationhood into the school system.

"The broader goal is to address the country's educational concerns in relation to access, equity, retention and relevance," she said.

Specifically, she said, the evaluation seeks to establish if the interventions that have been put in the education sector in the past few years have improved the graduates for innovation and employment.

The review is also intended to align the curriculum with development needs envisaged in Vision 2030, whose three pillars are economic, social and political.

Reduce content

The review is also expected to reduce the content of subjects offered in schools and drastically cut on the workload.

Although the number of subjects have been systematically reduced in the past two decades, the content remains heavy.

Currently, seven subjects are offered in primary schools, but only five are examined in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination.

They are Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Social Studies and Religious Studies and Science, Art and Craft.

Secondary school curriculum offers 27 subjects and a candidate is examined in seven. The subjects are clustered into five groups. The first group is compulsory and comprises English, Kiswahili and Mathematics.

Besides the compulsory subjects, a candidate is required to take at least two subjects from group two (sciences), at least one in group three (humanities) and one in either group four (technical) or five (foreign languages and business studies).

Heavy curriculum load has been cited as the cause of student unrest with experts in agreement that the current curriculum has deficiencies.

Apart from being faulted for being expensive, thus creating a burden on parents and ultimately contributing to school dropouts, the curriculum is also blamed for courses overlap.

There are also concerns that learning items are not properly structured with certain high-level concepts being taught at lower levels, leading to knowledge-overload.

Dr Ayiro, who is in charge of curriculum development and research, says the new curriculum will give more emphasis to science, mathematics and technology.

"The review will enable us to align educational goals with Vision 2030 and put science and technology at the core of the proposed new curriculum," he said.

He underlined the need for regular curriculum reviews, saying new knowledge and skills must be incorporated in the school system.

The secretary of Kenya National Examinations Council, Mr Paul Wasanga, whose organisation is involved in the exercise, says the examinations format will be reviewed to conform to the envisaged changes in the curriculum.

"The curriculum review provides a chance for us at the council to revise exams formats and improve the process of measuring learning outcomes," he said.

Manageable

The review seeks to present to the Kenyan child a curriculum that is manageable, incorporates new knowledge and skills for an evolving economy, and one that is innovative and technologically driven.

The review will be the fourth since the introduction of the 8-4-4 system of education in 1985.

The first was in 1990 and led to the reduction of examinable subjects from nine to seven at the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, and from 13 to 10 at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.

The second review was conducted in 1995 and led to the reduction of examination subjects from seven to five at the primary level and from 10 to a minimum of eight at secondary level.

The last review in 2001 saw the number of examinable subjects at KCSE whittled down to seven although the entire curriculum has 27 subjects. The review did not change the number of examinable subjects at the primary level.

In 1998, the government set up a commission to review the 8-4-4 education system.

The Commission of Inquiry into the Education System of Kenya, which was chaired by Dr Davy Koech, recommended radical changes, including reverting to the old 7-4-2-3 system of education.

However, the findings of the report, which were made public only after the Nation exclusively reported about them, have never been implemented.