Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the education development before pre-colonial period, during the colonial period and after independence. With the country's (Kenya) gearing towards attaining middle income status by 2030, reforms in the education system are key.

Paper long abstract:

Studies conducted in the country have shown that there is a missing link between the graduates coming out of the education system in Kenya in relation to the industry demands. This has been attributed to the system of education that the country has in place which emphasises more on passage of examinations rather than acquisition of necessary competencies and skills which was the form of education system that existed in Africa before colonial period (apprenticeship model). In the last decade several countries across Africa have made reforms in their education sector to ensure production of graduates who posses required employability skills. Countries like Tanzania and Rwanda are far much ahead of Kenya in terms of implementing competency based curriculum in their education system. The new competency based curriculum (2-6-3-3-3) replaces the unpopular the 8-4-4 (introduced in 1985) system that has largely been blamed for decline in education standards around the country. In history, the country inherited colonial system of education that failed to meet the desires and needs of the country social economic development and has partly been blamed for pitfalls associated with it. This paper therefore discusses the education curriculum reforms in Kenya which has largely been theory based for many years into competency based curriculum which is aligned to the Kenya developmental Vision 2030 that aims to put this nation as a middle income country. Lessons learnt over the various curriculum reforms initiatives are presented in this paper as part of ensuring that other African countries journeying towards competency based learning can learn from the strides made by Kenya

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