Unmasking the Façade that Characterize Educational Reforms in Kenya

Abstract

Abstract- Education is a very crucial social institution. As it were, such an institution must constantly be monitored and evaluated to ensure that it serves the purpose for which it was formed. Should a negative appraisal report result from such an exercise, reforms are bound to happen – not necessarily in the education system itself or a part of it, but in any other sector that may be deemed deficient. Accordingly, this paper takes issue with Kenya’s educational reforms that initially sound genuine and promising, only to end up as a hype that bears no tangible fruits. The paper sets out to analyze the most recent reforms carried out in the Kenyan Basic Education Curriculum, with a view to establishing the authenticity of such reforms viz a viz their basis. It has employed Content Analysis method and dialectics to critique the recent reforms in the Kenyan Basic Education Curriculum. The analysis is hinged upon Decker Walker’s theory of curriculum development that bases on a naturalistic model of deliberation. The paper contends that our society expects too much from the education process but never endeavours to interrogate her own role in that process. When their expectations are finally unmet, the society clamours for immediate reforms without first establishing where the actual problem lies. Consequently, the reforms are centrally carried out by policy makers who seem out of touch with reality. Such reforms become cyclic and therefore cosmetic since they are unfounded. And when implemente