A little less than three years ago, I told the Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Publishers Association (KPA), James Odhiambo, that his association should stop its dependence on Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to keep surviving in business.
I expressed concern that publishing firms we associated with best fictional works in my school years had narrowed its scope to textbook writing for learners at basic education levels.
The challenge, a Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) lecturer, Prof. Egara Kabaji gave to KPA in which he asked to think learners at basic education levels in its strategy brought this conversation to my mind.
“By focusing on KICD approved texts, we are publishing for only 36per cent of Kenyans; those in the, basic education. The other 64per cent of our nation is left unattended to, let alone the market outside Kenya. They too, deserve material relevant to their lives, their profession, their passions, their leisure,” Kabaji noted in an article in a local daily.
Truth be told, Publishing firms in this country are unduly dependent on the educational needs of students. They have clearly invested their energies, ingenuity and other resources in textbook writing.
“Get as many of your titles approved by KICD and you have a market that can meet your business strategy. You can then take tea, like the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury said of the dependence of Bankers when he was assessed for suitability as a Cabinet Secretary.”
Just like banks cannot live on Treasury Bills and Bonds forever, publishing firms cannot live on approved textbooks to survive.
Government policy on textbooks is not cast in stone. It can change overnight. Even where it remains as it is, reliance on it as a business strategy or model is bad.
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Firstly, the textbook market as Kabaji noted, is a paltry 36 percent of Kenyans. The remaining 64% is a huge market by any standards. Of the 64%, are Kenyans who have a secondary and postsecondary education. This is an untapped market with varying informational, education and entertainment needs. Thoughtful research into these needs can, with creativity and imagination yield book ideas that can find a market without the influence of KICD.
Secondly, for all you know, government policy on textbooks can very easily change. A sudden shift on current textbook writing and buying policy by the government can rudely disrupt a publishing firm particularly that which heavily depends on government fiat on the production of course books for learners. Textbook publishing, approval and distribution policy in any country is not cast in stone. Nor is the whole idea about curriculum materials aligned to the prescribed curriculum. Therefore, to be prepared, is to be forewarned.
Diversification into non course books can help the firms to absorb the shocks, before it makes adjustments. The business environment for course books, like other lines of business, is unpredictable. It is not static.
Thirdly, changes in the curriculum do not overly invalidate the disciplinary knowledge of a given subject taught in school. What the curriculum makers do is either to emphasise certain ideas, or broaden or deepen them in response to changes in understanding of the ideas in the environment.
Changes in technology or instruction strategy.
Publishing firms that have been around for ages have with them coursebooks that were highly respected for their content and instruction strategy. In other words, they have copyright to certain books that are out of print.
The firms could reissue or reprint these textbooks and sell them through aggressive marketing strategies. Parents of school going children today are comparatively better educated than their counterparts some twenty or so years ago. They can easily buy those books for their children as supplementary or reference materials.
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Some of the course books had high value content and impactful instructional methods. Get staffers with the right mix of knowledge about these things and ingenuity in marketing. The books will find a waiting market for them.
I know some of the old publishing firms published highly readable storybooks—graded from class One to class seven (or eight) and from forms One to Forms Four. We have novels, plays, poems, and functional writings as letters, speeches, memos and diaries. The content of these books is valid.
Reprinting, reissuing the books, with new strategic adjustments here and there, will ensure that publishing firms have products that will find a market in the students and general population without seeking or waiting for the approval of a government authority. One of my uncles fondly talks about a book entitled Mutabingwa. I believe, a reissue of such a book by whichever publishing firm has the copyrighted material, can cause a sensation in the book market. We also have the T.K.K books. Incomparably effective in beginning reading.
Fourthly, publishing firms have an obligation to diffuse knowledge to the body politic. Knowledge ancient, Knowledge recent. Knowledge contemporary or current. Knowledge that is not necessarily sanctioned by the state, but which knowledge is useful for Kenyans as citizens.
A societal wide perspective of their mandate is likely to enable the firms to publish books with critical information for the enlightenment of Kenyans. They will unwittingly be cultivating the reading culture that policy and opinion leaders worry about.
Fifthly, publishing firms don’t exist for learners. They exist for people of all ages—children, teenagers, young adults and old people. It is a school which exists for learners. They could, with this perspective, prepare books for people of all ages. They should also write the course books, subject to the approval of KICD, that are interesting not just to read them, but also to create the necessary interest and curiosity to read more and more books.
Addressing these and other issues, then, the tea taken in offices of publishing firms will be well earned.
By Kennedy Buhere
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