As schools reopen starting today for the first term of the year following the longest holiday in the academic calendar, it is time to reflect and make forecasts as the myriad problems gnawing at the sector threaten to get worse this year.
The basic education sector is in the grips of a crippling teacher shortage estimated at 100,000 in primary and secondary schools.
Although the Teachers Service Commission recently made an audacious move to plug the gap by hiring 10,000 interns in addition to 5,000 teachers on permanent terms, the changes are incremental and unsustainable.
The shortage has eroded morale as teachers have to take up an extra work burden to ensure learning is not disrupted.
But the heavier load means learners are getting a raw deal due to lack of individualised attention from teachers.
The situation is made worse by the government’s 100 per cent transition policy, which aims at putting all primary school leavers into secondary schools.
Though noble in principle, it means schools have to accommodate more students in strained facilities and with fewer teachers.
In about two weeks, the around 10,000 secondary schools will absorb more than a million pupils who completed primary school last year in what will be the highest number of Form One admissions in four years.
Still, the new Competency-Based Curriculum will enter the fourth grade this year and questions on how learners will transit from one level to the other or how they will be examined are yet to be resolved.
Training of teachers for that grade has been haphazard and teaching and learning materials yet to reach schools.
In the higher education sector, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges are severely understaffed with a shortage of about 5,000 out of a capacity of 8,000 yet they will absorb more than 500,000 students who completed Form Four last year but did not make the cut for university admission.
At the universities, more than 9,000 lecturers and about 27,000 non-teaching staff plan to boycott work when the institutions reopen, over a dispute regarding the implementation of the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
In addition, the reforms that Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha pledged to enhance quality of teaching and learning are yet to take root.
These problems are likely to undermine the entire education sector unless confronted decisively. While there is no silver bullet to cure them, practical solutions must be sought urgently.
Prof Magoha has shown a desire for change, which he must push to the logical end to safeguard the education sector.
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