CBE: Lessons from America's Seattle elementary school

Can you recall factual films that once kept the rural areas awake? My primary school classroom faced the road to the marketplace, where the movies were screened in the open air.

Our eyes were glued to the window to spot the film van on Thursdays.

The pupils on that side of the school exploded in joy once they saw the film van. Watching movies in the open was another experience.

The temperatures in my village can hit eight degrees Celsius or even lower, with a wind chill. That did not deter us from walking four kilometres at night to watch the movies. With no power, a diesel engine did the work. Power finally came, 59 years after uhuru.

Much later, recent movies were advertised in the newspapers. Only then did we realise how old our open-air movies were. Language was a barrier. Some voices tried to make our lives easier.

Today, movie theatres have vanished, and some have been turned into churches. There is a silent revival on the big screen, driven more by the need for socialisation than entertainment.

The American-based movies starring cowboys and their sombreros probably planted the seeds of our fascination with that country. Add the airlift, which took some of our pioneer post-independence leaders to US universities.

Later, Kenyans started migrating to the United States. We went a step further and had one of our presidents study there. The high noon was President Obama, whose father was Kenyan.

When we decided to change the constitution, or rather forced by political and economic reality, the framers borrowed heavily and lazily from the US, often keeping archaic terms like secretaries and governors.

American governors are in charge of States, some bigger than Kenya. Ours are in charge of counties much smaller and resource-poor. It’s no wonder implementing the 2010 constitution has remained problematic fifteen years later. 

When it came to changing our education system, we looked to the US, but via Canada through the 8.4.4 system. The new Competence-Based Education (CBE) looks very American, minus resources. 

The students go through kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school. These schools are independent with their own management, budgets and facilities.

In Kenya, we mix middle and elementary schools. Do our leaders do any benchmarking when shifting to CBE?

They probably did. But our benchmarking is usually at the top level. It leaves out the operational levels.

An MP can go on a foreign benchmarking trip, but a chief would learn more and be more realistic. The Ministry of Education would benefit more if it involved teachers in benchmarking.

They work in the education operational level, where the rubber meets the road. Enough on benchmarking. 

A visit to an elementary school in Kent near Seattle was an eye-opener. Why?

One is the neatness and quality of buildings. Many universities in Kenya can only envy the school and its public!

I was told that after some years, the school will be rebuilt, not renovated, as it’s cheaper.

Do our school buildings have a lifespan? Kids are provided with books, pens, computers (iPads) and other learning materials. They only need to take themselves to school.

And they pay no fees because their parents pay taxes. Transport is provided beyond a certain distance from the school. The disconnect between the taxes we pay and their use has been a national grief. 

 The school is a one complex, not “sausage buildings.” There are indoor sports facilities due to the winter. In one sports arena, the names of top universities are on the wall and their logos.

How many secondary schools in Kenya have such names on their walls? 

Each class has 24 students only. The teacher is paid an overload if the number exceeds that. Students sit in groups of six. The sitting arrangement is flexible.

The board is black, because it’s an electronic screen! I wish we had visited with the minister of education.

The small class size not only enables the teacher to control the pupils but also takes care of weak and gifted students.

Pupils testing is done at both the district level and the State level to ensure standards are maintained.

Private schools

And corrective measures are taken commensurate with funding. States are divided into school districts with elected boards. I would have loved to visit other school levels and even private schools. 

One more, information about schools is public except for private information. You can get information on budgets, purchases, salaries, levies, etc. That transparency ensures no nepotism.

In Kenya, we even debate how many students are in a school or if a school exists. All the funds given to schools, either by the government, parents or any other source and their uses should be public information, both aggregated and at school levels.

We may never be like the US, but we can learn a few lessons. The most important thing is that operations are as important as strategic issues.

What are the operational strategies for the 2010 constitution and CBE? The most successful strategies are linked to operations, resources availed, and corrective measures taken if things go wrong. The failure to link grand strategies to operations, actual activities on the ground, has been our soft underbelly. Over to our schools and their stakeholders.