• In a bid to address quality of education, the ministry has proposed school self-assessment, peer assessment and the traditional external assessment.
• The assessments seeks to underline measures to ensure safety in schools, sanitation, adequate learning and boarding facilities, improved teacher-learner ration and learners health.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING’A
The government has compiled measures to improve the quality of education.
The details are contained in a 51-page document that seeks to replace the National Education Quality Assurance and Standards Framework.
The document will guide teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools and underlines measures to bring an end to class repetition, reduce dropouts and cut on absenteeism.
It will further ensure safety in schools, sanitation, adequate learning and boarding facilities, improved teacher-learner ration and learners' health.
Currently, overstretched resources in primary and secondary schools threaten to paralyse some school operations.
The policy document puts assessment at the centre of improving quality in schools.
The assessment names the institutions that will prepare a proper guide on how to address them.
Unlike previously where assessment was solely done by the Ministry of Education officers, there will be a three-tier quality assessment.
This will include school self-assessment, peer assessment and the traditional external assessment headed by ministry officials.
The change is to allow institutions to reflect on their progress and identify gaps.
Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairman Indimuli Kahi yesterday welcomed the proposed policy document but called on improved funding to institutions to improve quality.
“We also have to change the way quality assurance officers deal with principals on issues of compliance so that they offer advice and not rush to schools to find faults after occurrence of disasters,” Kahi said.
For self-assessment, institutions will be using a School Assessment Tool (SAT) to evaluate and judge the quality of their practice to learners' outcomes.
The SAT provides criteria of judgment for consistent and comparable grading schools.
It will be carried out every term and will be led by a teacher appointed by the school management.
At the beginning of every term, the lead internal quality assurance officer will identify areas to be assessed and coordinate the process.
"After the termly assessments, the school management shall discuss the findings, the BoM and the teachers shall develop a School Action Plan for the implementation of Self-Assessment and External Assessments recommendations. The School Action Plan shall be shared with relevant offices for follow up," the document reads.
Peer review consists of three to five teachers from neighbouring schools, chaired by a headteacher from one of the participating schools.
Peer review assessment will be informed by the self-assessment report and will make suggestions on quality improvement in the institutions.
It is after the self-assessment and peer assessment that an institution will be subjected to the external review.
In the external review, the government will use its quality assurance officers to look into the same issues and verify whether the institutions comply and adhere to the set regulations.