The Ministry of Education has been called upon to help create awareness and support advancement of the President’s Award Kenya.
Speaking in Mombasa, the President’s Award Kenya chief executive officer Nelly Munala said this will help more students and adult helpers participate and benefit from the Award's experience.
She said that the PA-K is a character building programme and a non-formal education and learning framework which complements formal education.
Munala said the Award, which was launched by first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in 1966, also helps students to develop life skills in formal education.
“We feel like we are at a place where young people find themselves and therefore they need to build their skills for example around resilience, adaptability to change and also leadership skills.
“That is why we are saying that you may not find that in the classroom because we believe not all learning is found in the classroom.”
The CEO said there is a lot of learning happening outside the classroom and that is where PA-K comes in because it involves young people between the ages of 14 to 24 in learning institutions.
Munala said for now, the programme is active in about 80 per cent of secondary schools, universities, tertiary and middle level colleges, medical training colleges and TVETs.
They also work with young people who are out of school.
She said that the programme, which is open in the 47 counties, accommodates young people from institutions registered as part of the family of President’s Award Kenya.
Munala said that the programme is a global franchise and therefore if a person participates, it's just as good as a young person who has done it in the United Kingdom.
"In terms of employability, the programme helps young people to do that and when it comes to just fitting in to discovering themselves, their talent and what can be a career part for them, this programme allows them to do that.
"They may not be academically gifted but at least there is something they can be able to do,” she said.
Currently, there are about 122,000 young people enlisted in the programme in about 1,115 institutions where they are either at bronze, silver or gold level of study.
Munala said that they are equipping the young people to thrive in the 21st century and that is why they say ‘the world ready’.
She said that this is a voluntary programme where they do not force a anyone to go through and that is why it has not gotten much traction.
But by partnering with the Teachers Service Commission and with the Education Ministry being central to what they do, the programme is gaining traction.
At least over 500,000 Kenyans have gone through the programme which has been into existence for the last 56 years.
“We have many people who have gone through the programme who are out there in different spheres, some of them are politicians, some are in social transformation and social economic agencies,” she said.
The PA-K has a strategy of expanding the programme in the next five years where they are looking at three focused areas which are their access, reach and impact.
“In terms of access, we are saying we should remove all barriers that prohibit young people from doing the programme as we reach out to all young people across Kenya should be able to join the programme.
"As President Award Kenya, we may not be able to do that alone and therefore we are working with structures that can be able to help us get to as many young people as possible, we are working with learning institutions, youth groups and prisons so that we can get many more young people,” she said.
Munala called on the Ministry of Education to tap and emulate the programme saying its the right direction.
“When you look at CBC, it talks a lot about developing the talents of young people and that is where we come in as a programme, we are trying to develop talents of young people.
"There is also a section around service and we are saying yes, let us take as many young people as possible who are in school doing CBC through the PA-K so that they can also be able to fulfill the ambitions of CBC,” she said.
Coast TSC director Juliet Kariuki said that PA-K has helped so much in maintaining discipline in learning institutions that are participating in the programme where they have few issues of indiscipline amongst students.
"It is our wish that with time we are going to have more of the institutions in this region joining the programme. As a commission, we appreciate the PA-K for being able to mentor our students in ensuring that they inculcate the right values in them and nurture their talents.
"The curriculum of the PA-K is actually in line with CBC curriculum in that we are actually trying to nurture whatever the students have," she said.
