Thread by @wmnjoya

So that we're on the same page about #KenyaVision2030's plan for education. Note the following:
1. Equation of education to training
2. Reduction of goals of education to the economic ones
3. Increased role of private sector, especially vouchers
#competencybasedcurriculum

#competencybasedcurriculum is about preparing workers, building private schools at the taxpayers' expense. It's not about children and the nation. @EduMinKenya looks confused because they're following donor money around. That's important for understanding #SessionalPaper2018

Just to show you @EduMinKenya's lack of vision* and educational insight, this one of the first pages. Talking about education "fit for purpose" and "modernizing and rebranding" makes you see that the point is the look, not the the substance of education #competencybasedcurriculum

And more confusion: "Kenya Vision 2030 places great emphasis on the link between education and the labour market, the need to create entrepreneurial skills and competences, AND STRONG PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS." #competencybasedcurriculum

The Sessional paper says that the pathways are "vocational, technical, talent and academic." The original framework of @KICDKenya was 1.arts & sports 2. social sciences 3.STEM. KICD explicitly said that they didn't want a cognitive component #competencybasedcurriculum

Section 1.26 aligns early and basic education to #KenyaVision2030. That's ridiculous and shouldn't be in #sessionalpaper2019. Basic education is not about economic needs but about the human being's basic literacy, thinking, numerical and creative skills #competencybasedcurriculum

In my first appearance in the media on #competencybasedcurriculum, I complained about taking this obsession with training workers to primary school kids #sessionalpaper2019

https://twitter.com/ntvkenya/status/933421171948662784?lang=en

The other puzzling thing about the focus of @EduMinKenya on TVET is that TVET is the function of counties, not the national government. So why is the government releasing funds for TVET from Treasury while it is underfunding counties and universities? #competencybasedcurriculum

In chapter 2, the money chapter of #sessionalpaper2019, does not account for expenditure on centralized administration. The document talks about teachers salaries taking the 2/3 of expenditure on education, but doesn't talk about administrative costs #competencybasedcurriculum

Lack of data on administration costs is a huge gap, since #sessionalpaper2019 implies that the builk of the money on education is spent on teachers salaries, and says nothing about the huge number of parastatals in the sector that are doing double work #competencybasedcurriculum

Chapter 3 is saddening. Just like in the earlier version, #sessionalpaper2019 reveals that @EduMinKenya seems not to know what an educational philosophy is.

https://twitter.com/wmnjoya/status/1095175814205849605

Ai. Can @EduMinKenya please decide. One day, Magoha says he wants to expand private universities. Next day, public universities are too many. Now #sessionalpaper2019 says university places are not enough.

And since @EduMinKenya loves spending our taxes on trips abroad to benchmark, why isn't there a section comparing proportion of graduates to the general population, to income brackets, in mid to higher income countries? #Sessionalpaper2019

That said, it seems @EduMinKenya has grown up a little. This was not in the 2018 version. I still don't think #KenyaVision2030 is compatible with social equity and cohesion, but at least they saw that this focus on business is getting ridiculous #competencybasedcurriculum

This paragraph on university education policy sounds rather puzzling. Who are "best providers of university education"? How is "best" decided? Sounds to me like throwing money after universities that already get the money #sessionalpaper2019

Kenyans, this is not entirely true. The EAC did not adopt CBC. It was proposed, but they have not adopted it. Sp the document @EduMinKenya is using is invalid.

As I promised, #competencybasedcurriculum means not less, but different testing #sessionalpaper2019

I suspect Kenya pushed for CBC, given the way we like wazungu more than other African countries. Standardization of curriculum was an EU project. Foreign capital needs a one-size fits all system to be able to sell its products #sessionalpaper2019

https://twitter.com/wmnjoya/status/1078178168773767169

Education standardization is also for the benefit of businesses entering the education sector. Remember Europeans and SA are buying private school chains in Kenya with the goal of reaching out to elites in the larger EAC region #sessionalpaper2019 businesstoday.co.ke/riara-group-of…

Remember owners like Dr. Gicharu are expanding their universities, but saying it's for regional integration when it's actually for capital expansion. Just like Brookside, education business people have imperial projects in the region #sessionalpaper2019 nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/T…

Now on exams.

I think @eduminkenya still hasn't figured out what exams are for and the nature of the exam problem in Kenya. For instance, it talks of "global assessment standards" without defining what those are #sessionalpaper2019 #competencybasedcurriculum

There is a misleading element on testing that @EduMinKenya is using to manipulate Kenyans. In #Sessionalpaper2019, CATs does not mean CONTINUOUS assessment tests. It means COMPETENCE assessment tests. That's how KNEC @ExamsCouncil is now going to test kids at lower levels.

Exams are now also part of the regional business. #sessionalpaper2019 is proposing to "promote recognition of national examination and competency-based assessment internationally." Somebody is going to make money from regional exams #competencybasedcurriculum

I have said before that #competencybasedcurriculum is not a learner centered but manager-centered. On top of "competence" tests, #sessionalpaper2019 puts more emphasis on quality assurance, meaning more teaching staff out of the classrooms and on inspection and benchmarking trips

Oh, and the problem with corruption and lack of ethics is not what it does to us as human beings and a society, but its "inhibiting the realization of the country's economic blueprints."

Yani this government loves money more than people. #sessionalpaper2019

As if that is not enough, the government is privatizing responses to social problems. To help the youth cope with changing times, it is recognizing the role of the faith sector, the family and guidance and counselling services. This is just so disturbing #sessionalpaper2019

Yes, faith, family and guidance and counselling are important. However, there are also curriculum aspects that need to be included like arts and humanities to help students understand society and express themselves. However, #sessionalpaper2019 reduces arts to talent, aka money

"Focus on the family" is a white evangelical idea that assumes all kids come from two-parent middle income families. So kids from broken homes, poor families or no parents are screwed from birth. And the discrimination has started #sessionalpaper2019

https://twitter.com/Koreey_16/status/1126052272667025409

On technical training, #sessionalpaper2019 is sending mixed signals:
1. It wants TVET to be driven by industry demand, which means no innovation beyond industry needs, yet MoE says it wants innovation
2. It wants CBC for self-employment and also for employability. Which is it?

#sessionalpaper2019 on funding. Here is really the fundamental purporse of #competencybasedcurriculum: Privatization.

There are so many troubling neoliberal assumptions here, but I will revisit in a different thread.

#Sessionalpaper2019 wants public universities to diversify its sources of income, including consultancies. Instead of giving consultancies, give the money to the universities. And hasn't @EduMinKenya learned, after 30 decades of research, that quality drops due to marketization?

The most annoying part of @eduminkenya's privatization of education is that it has no philosophical fromework to prevent foreign and corporate interests underming our national and social ones. This is recklessness and an invitation to recolonization of Kenya #sessionalpaper2019

#sessionalpaper2019 is also proposing lending TAXPAYERS' money to educational entrepreneurs. Is GoK a government or a bank? Why lend money for schools to pirates to build schools? This makes no sense. We're using taxes to build private schools owned by the rich @EduMinKenya

So in this long thread, I have highlighted the problems I see with the #sessionalpaper2019 that is supposed to entrench the #competencybasedcurriculum. It is a disturbing revelation of the lack of care, philosophical direction or national consciousness in GoK and @EduMinKenya

In summary, this is my judgement of #Sessionalpaper2019

1. @KICDKenya @EduMinKenya have made NO CASE for #competencybasedcurriculum as a national education approach from primary school. The only chapter on CBC talks about the new school structure & gives no justification of CBC

2. #SessionalPaper2019 is not a paper on the new education system. It's a mash up of policies on everything and nothing that runs into 210 pages, raising the question of whether @EduMinKenya really intends for MPs to scrutinize and reflect on such a long document

3. So many sections are repetitive. For instance, the rational and structure of TVET is repeated in so many chapters with no expressively new information offered. This is why I'm suspicious that @EduMinKenya is n is trying to prevent close reading of #sessionalapaper2019

4. The education reforms and #competencybasedcurriculum are not about learners but about managers. GoK is giving up its function of education to pirate sector, so it's increasing supervision, monitoring and quality inspection jobs while reducing expenditure on education itself

5. Missing from the #sessionalpaper2019 is an costing of the actual implementation of #Competencybasedcurriculum. We are not told how much materials, training of teachers, consultancies, travel of administrators cost, or how much more schools will need to implement the system

6. #sessionalpaper2019 also doesn't give a breakdown of what will happen to the primary and high schools, how it intends to deal with teacher administration. Will high school teachers go teach in primary school or what? And how much will the teacher adjustments cost?