Challenges Facing Education Planning in Kenya: Kenya is facing a number of challenges to the educational system and planning. These include shortcomings in the quality of education, a lack of governance and coordination, low enrollment rates in rural areas, a high cost for students who cannot afford it or have no scholarships to cover it, and a continuing disparity between girls and boys education, especially in rural areas.
Discussing these obstacles is important because Kenya needs everyone’s participation in improving access to quality education for all Kenyans, irrespective of their location or socio-economic status. The Kenya Ministry of Education, through its Directorate of Education Planning and Administration (DEPPA), had appointed a number of key informants to give their feedback on the challenges facing education planning in Kenya.
Qualities of a Good Education Plan
The qualities of a good education plan are:
-Designed for the student’s needs and desires
-Actionable
-Convenient
Balanced between academics, extracurriculars, and time to relax
-Budget friendly
Based on this list of qualities, you can create an education plan that will help you achieve your life goals.
1. Designed for the student’s needs and desires
An education plan should not be designed for the parents’ or teachers’ needs and desires; it should be designed for the student’s needs and desires. An education plan should include what the student wants to do in life, not what adults want him to do. That is why it is called an “education plan,” because it is a plan created by students who are preparing for their future. It is important that students feel like they have some control over their futures, so let them create their own education plans with guidance from mentors.
2. Actionable
Education plans should include both academic and extracurricular goals that can be met by the student. That way, you can help your child feel good about his life decisions, and you will have no reason for guilt when telling him “no” in the future. If there are no extracurricular activities or challenges involved, an education plan is not very helpful.
3. Convenient
A structured schedule of classes and activities should be available to the student 24 hours a day. It should follow no more than one major school calendar year, which is roughly 13 weeks long (spring through summer). So, if the student attends school for 16 weeks, that leaves 8 weeks that the student has control over his life.
4. Balanced between academics, extracurriculars, and time to relax
An education plan should provide a balance of academic and extracurricular activities. It is important for students to learn different things in order to be successful in their future careers; studying hard is important as well. Thus, it is best to also include some time to relax and have fun with friends during this critical period of your child’s life.
5. Budget friendly
The majority of children spend around 10% of their family income on educational expenses (or more). So it is important to be frugal when creating an education plan that will help your child reach his future goals. For example, in the 8 weeks of free time included in each school year, you can schedule about 10 days where you will enroll your child in a service trip. This way, he can learn about the struggles faced by adults and children around the world and help them overcome those challenges.
An education plan should include what school year is best for meeting these characteristics; for some students, it might be better to finish high school before pursuing an education plan and college immediately afterwards, but others might want to focus on college studies first. An education plan should be flexible enough to adjust to the needs of each student.
There are many different activities that involve making money while helping others, such as teaching English, tutoring, and volunteering. There are also many ways to support your family while you pursue your own goals. Once you determine what type of work you want to do in the future and what areas of the world need improving, it is important that you build a network of people who will help support your life plans. A good way to find people who have similar interests is through social media; for example, Facebook groups for entrepreneurs can be found at Facebook Groups for Entrepreneurs.
Challenges Facing Education Planning in Kenya
The challenges faced by the education sector in Kenya include:
- There is a lack of an integrated, continuous, and evidence-based education planning and administration framework for inclusive education that is responsive to the needs of students with diverse learning needs, including the inclusion of students with disabilities in primary or secondary school through a phased inclusion approach.
- Lack of an integrated, continuous, and evidence-based policy implementation system for inclusive education The systems promote policies such as the Integrated Education Development Programme (IEDP), Universal Basic Education (UBE), and Early Childhood Development (ECD) at the national level.
- inappropriate funding regime that discriminates against students with special needs.
- limited policy and institutional framework for inclusion of students with special needs in rural and underserved areas.
- Existing laws and policies on inclusion lack implementation mechanisms, which inhibit their implementation.
- existing legal framework that is not consistent with human rights treaties, conventions, and declarations. The existing legal provisions are discriminatory against people with disabilities in schools and other areas. The existing educational laws have not been fully implemented to support persons with disabilities in accessing education.
- lack of a system that provides for continuity, coordination, and promotion of inclusive education.
- inadequate capacity at the school level to respond to the needs of students with special needs.
- lack of mentors and support services at the school level to support teachers in their work with students with special needs. It is especially important for mentors to work closely with teachers in ICT classrooms.
- There are a limited number of schools that have good infrastructure for inclusive education.
- Lack of coordination between agencies involved in delivering inclusive education For example, the Kenya National Association of the Blind (KNIB) is not effectively coordinating with community-based associations for persons with disabilities in providing services to students with special needs. Most of these associations are not registered as non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
- lack of support services for students with special needs, which include the lack of even shared education where students are supported to access education in mainstream classes.
- A high number of students with special needs drop out of schools, especially secondary schools. This is attributed to the lack of understanding and problems with accommodations for these students in rural and underserved areas.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the problems facing education planning?
POOR PARENTING.
INDISCIPLINE.
UNSTABLE SUBJECT AND CURRICULUM.
LACK OF PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS.
POOR REMUNERATION.
What are the factors militating against educational planning?
inadequate planning tools, inadequate educational planners, poor capacity of educational planners, political influences, political instability and lack of reliable data/i
What are the major barriers in planning?
Inability to plan or inadequate planning. …
Lack of commitment to the planning process. …
Inferior information. …
Focusing on the present at the expense of the future. …
Too much reliance on the organization’s planning department.
Why is planning most challenging?
Planning is hard because predicting is hard. Of course, predicting is a lot easier when you have more information, but usually we have far less than we’d like, so planning is hard because of limited information. Planning is a prediction problem and an information problem.
What are the causes of lack of planning?
Misaligned vision and a lack of stakeholder buy-in.
No clear communication process.
Unrealistic goals and deadlines.
Poorly allocated resources and team members.
Disconnected tools and lack of flexibility to course correct.
References
- Tafutakenya.com – Challenges facing kenya and solutions
- Brokenchalk.org – educational Challenges in Kenyan education
- Profiles.uonbi.com – Challenges facing planning of education in Kenya
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