Education stakeholders meeting in Kenya have urged for curriculum reforms to be learner-centered
The Aga Khan University in Nairobi has organised a major education stakeholders as it aims at evaluating the development of education in the East African region. The conference theme is Maximizing Educational Change: Research, Policy, Leadership, Technology and Curriculum and will run until April 17.
The conference, is hosted by AKU’s Institute for Educational Development, brought together around 100 policy makers, teachers, and education stakeholders to discuss relevant issues affecting education in East Africa.
The Chairman of the Commission for University Education, Prof. Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha has advised education stakeholders to ensure that the ongoing curriculum review process is learner-centered.
Noting that the review of the current educational structure is inevitable, Prof. Chacha told stakeholders to ensure that they do not exert their influence to the process, at the expense of the pupils and students who need the education as a base for their careers and vocations.
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“Any reform that is not informed on the basis of the good opportunities that will be availed to the learner is not good reform,” Prof Chacha said, “we must always take into consideration the interest of the learner in terms of what he or she is able to get from the education system.”
Prof Chacha also called on stakeholders within the East African region to work together in promoting quality teaching and learning so as to improve the socio-economic development in the region.
“We do believe that the education system will enhance the togetherness – the economic bloc that we are building – through the East African community can be enhanced by the way we conduct business in classrooms and the people we produce from our schools and from our institutions including our universities,” he said.
“We believe that if we are to make an impact and change in the societies we work in, we cannot confine ourselves in academic institutions,” said Prof Joe Lugalla, Director of the Institute of Educational Development, East Africa, “and we must engage policy makers and education stakeholders in identifying educational reforms that support educational development in East Africa.”
This year, the conference will focus on maximizing change in education that will provide every Kenyan learner with world-class standards in the skills and knowledge that they need and deserve to thrive in the 21st century.
“What kind of socialization agenda, whether it’s in the home, the community or the school, will put us on a different path?” asked Dr Kofi Marfo, Director of the Institute of Human Development, AKU, “so that in addition to the curricula that is providing us all the cognition we can have, we’ll create a different society in which we understand that There is something called a common good – and each one of us has a role to play in the development of that common good.”
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