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A former Ministry of Education officer shares lessons learnt from education technocrats.
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His experiences deepened his understanding of curriculum reforms, school financing and policy.
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The reflections show how curiosity and continuous learning shaped his perspective on education.
By Kennedy Buhere
“Your thoughts continuously make me wonder whether you are a communication specialist or an education one.” — Dr. Wycliffe Osabwa
Recently, a lecturer at Alupe University, Dr. Wycliffe Osabwa Ayieko, wondered whether I was a communication specialist or an education specialist.
He is not alone. Some of my former colleagues at the Ministry of Education relentlessly asked me whether I studied Education in college.
“Then where do you find this information?” they always asked me.
Ayieko was, therefore, not the first person to question whether I was a specialist in Education. I know why they asked me. It is because the only way a person can access some knowledge worthy of holding other people’s attention is through school or college.
My Introduction to Education Reforms
I joined the Ministry of Education in early 2012 when it was in the middle of a whirlwind of reforms. The government was about to change the education system from the 8-4-4 system of education we had known for years to something else. What it was, I did not know.
For example, it was at Miringaini in Nyandarua County that I first heard the phrase Competency-Based Curriculum. Then Permanent Secretary for Education, the late Prof. George Godia, while addressing residents, said that the government was in the process of changing education to Competency-Based Education.
The remarks fired my curiosity. How different would this system be from the 8-4-4 system of education?
I set out to look for answers to this question. I talked to technocrats at Jogoo House, the Ministry headquarters, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC). I also talked to students, parents, and teachers on topical issues in education. I talked to my own children whenever I wanted to understand certain things from the students’ perspective. I searched for information on the internet and bought books on education from the streets of Nairobi.
Learning from Education Technocrats
My interest was in various aspects of education. Curriculum planning, syllabus development, curriculum design, curriculum materials, and curriculum implementation kept popping up in conversations among the technocrats. They attracted my curiosity.
I not only disturbed officers to explain the concepts to me, but also sought to understand how relevant they were to learners—the primary audience in communication terms.
I keenly listened as education technocrats, that is, specialists in education, discussed and deliberated on issues in boardrooms, whether they were addressing a clear and present problem or undertaking long-range planning.
I not only listened to the deliberations, but also went around looking for those I thought knew these things and prodded them for explanations. I also looked for relevant policy documents and books to improve my understanding of the issues.
In this way, I developed some rudimentary appreciation of the various dimensions of education. Whenever policymakers made statements, policy-related or otherwise, I had sufficient working knowledge to put the remarks into context and prepare press statements or write articles.
Understanding the Role of Public Relations
The visible work of a Public Relations practitioner—I prefer this title to Public Communication practitioner—is two-fold.
The first is to tell the story of the organisation to those it exists to serve or impact. The second is to tell the organisation how the people it exists to serve feel about what it is doing for them.
The PR practitioner does this by interpreting the words and actions of the organisation to the public and also interpreting the attitudes of the public to the organisation.
These functions are carried out through research, feedback, communication, and evaluation. These processes enable the practitioner to find out the concerns and expectations of an organisation’s publics and explain them to management.
A Public Relations practitioner in any organisation must therefore thoroughly understand the vision, purpose, and operations of the organisation or industry to be useful both to the institution and the publics it serves.
The founding father of modern Public Relations, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, observed that a Public Relations specialist exists to provide advice on public actions and to communicate those actions to the public in understandable terms.
One of the simplest views of Public Relations entails finding out what people like about an organisation and advising management to do more of it, while also identifying what people dislike and advising management to do less of it or stop it altogether.
There is a lot of thinking, analysing, assessing public opinion, and advising management or leadership about concerns and gaps in service delivery in order to make institutions more sensitive to the aspirations, expectations, and anxieties of the public.
In the event of concerns or reservations, the controlling idea of Public Relations remains the policies and actions of the organisation itself. Publicity alone is not enough to counteract public dissatisfaction with policies or actions they do not agree with.
Walking with Policymakers
Communication specialists are always walking with policymakers, or at least remain close to those who advise policymakers on technical matters affecting, in my case, learners, their parents, and basic education institutions.
The person learns things. He gets to master some of the issues that are ever-present in the minds of policymakers.
At the State Department for Basic Education, I found experienced officers who were willing to help me understand the issues and challenges the Ministry grappled with.
I would walk into some of their offices and ask hard questions about the topical policy issue, problem, challenge, or crisis of the day. I would also ask about issues that did not make sense to me—issues that could easily evolve into problems or crises if not addressed.
Lessons on Textbooks and Learning
Two former Quality Assurance and Standards Officers, Mr. Majani Baridi and Mr. Edwin Charles Oloo (both retired), greatly helped me understand the place and limitations of textbooks in the education of learners.
These two officers told me that textbooks were ideally meant for students and not teachers.
“The exclusive reliance on textbooks by teachers, instead of using other sources of information on the prescribed curriculum, is therefore wrong,” they told me.
This idea struck me.
Understanding the CBC Structure
Former Deputy Director of Education Mr. Onesimus Kiminza and his counterpart in Policy and Partnership, Mr. Elijah Mungai, clarified for me the reasons the government reduced the years learners spend in primary school from eight to six years.
More than anything else, this is one of the soundest reform initiatives under Competency-Based Education. However, it requires utmost skill to make it work for Kenya’s children, just as it does in countries such as South Africa, England, South Korea, Israel, and Canada, where primary and secondary education each lasts six years.
Why Official School Hours Matter
I was equally excited when education officers and other stakeholders discussed class hours—the period teachers are officially expected to engage learners in learning.
This was in preparation for what later became Section 84 of the Basic Education Regulations, 2015.
They pegged official class hours at 8.00 a.m. to 3.30 p.m., a maximum of six hours on weekdays during school days.
I asked why the Ministry found it necessary to spell out official class hours.
Former Quality Assurance and Standards Officer Mr. Fidels Nakhulo explained that it is standard practice in educational jurisdictions to stipulate the maximum hours learners are engaged each day.
Mr. Nakhulo said class hours are based on how long learners can actively engage in learning while allowing time for rest and preventing fatigue and stress.
The Economics of Education Financing
Financing the delivery of education in basic education institutions also attracted my attention. This was during the task force constituted by then Cabinet Secretary for Education, Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi, under the chairmanship of Dr. Kilemi Mwiria.
School fees had effectively broken the ozone layer.
Two young economists—Philip Kinaro and Polycarp Otieno—helped me appreciate the reasonableness of the ceilings the task force imposed: Sh53,000 for National Schools and Sh40,000 for other categories of secondary schools, excluding day schools.
I was worried when the task force capped fees at those levels because some schools had pegged fees at Sh90,000, exclusive of government capitation, which stood at Sh12,000 at the time.
The young economists argued that the single biggest cost of education is teacher salaries, which are underwritten by the government, except for teachers employed by Boards of Management.
“But how can schools manage with BOM teachers?” I asked them.
They assured me that with capitation and household contributions for boarding expenses, schools should be able to manage with minimal stress.
Looking Back
The young economists may have had a point. The government has not consistently been sending the Sh22,244 it undertook to provide for every learner in secondary school.
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Principals of secondary schools now say that if the government resumed sending the full Sh22,244 per learner, schools would comfortably manage curriculum delivery and other responsibilities associated with running secondary schools.
Buhere is a Communication Specialist
Email: buhere2003@gmail.com
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