Kenyans have until Friday to submit views on the curriculum they want. This comes in the wake of the Education Cabinet Secretary’s assertion that the current curriculum is overly academic and it undermines the abilities and inclinations many students have in talent-based and vocational fields.
This places the onus on the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development in ensuring that the envisaged curriculum review addresses societal needs, key competencies for learner-teacher education, and strategies of identifying and nurturing talents, cross cutting and contemporary issues that the curriculum reforms should tackle among others.
It is an open secret that Kenya’s Vision 2030 economic blue print, developmental policies and strategies are all pegged on her education system. This is why Dr Matiangi’s statement and KICD’s invitation for submission of views on the curriculum reforms by individuals, public and private institutions should be seen as a rare window of opportunity to correct the past wrongs that have relegated our country into unenviable holder of despicable ‘third world’ adjective for too many years now.
Indeed, Kenya finds herself in this precarious economic state despite being endowed with numerous natural and human resources. In contrast, Kenya and her African countries colleagues, the majority of largest economies in the World today have managed to attain their economic status not by exploiting natural resources, but through transformation from agrarian to knowledge based economies. The transformation of ‘Asian Tigers’ which comprise of South Korea, the mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia is a case in point.
Their story has confounded naysayers, pessimists, critics and narcissists in equal measure who for ages held that a country cannot develop without exploiting the abundance of its natural resources. Unlike many counties in Middle East, the Russian Federation, Africa and Americas which are well endowed with natural resources like gas and minerals, the so called ‘Asian Tigers’ have no natural resources to sing home about. Notwithstanding, these countries are actualising the English adage of old which posits that, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”
The transformation of “Asian tigers” is premised on intangible assets which seem to have overtaken tangible assets in as far as wealth creation and economic development are concerned. Interestingly, this economic revolution is continuously evolving courtesy of institutionalization and integration of Intellectual Property (IP) in these countries education systems. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines IP education as a process that should support pupils and children in becoming IP creators in the future, WIPO hold that “their creativity should be developed, and they should be educated to respect the IP rights of others.”
To bring this point home, China which currently is being demonised the world over for counterfeit and IP rights infringement. However, unbeknown by many children in today’s China, are taught the importance of IP and how it works as soon as they enter primary school. Since the early 1980s, the Chinese government has been intent on creating an economy in which IP plays a fundamental role. This is what sets the country as an influential player in the new world economic frontier. In Japan, intellectual property education in school is emphasised because ‘Knowledge about the protection and utilisation of intellectual property rights is important to every citizen in order to ensure that Japan establishes for the 21st century a society based on creative science and technology’. The Japanese Patent Office sets out a programme that will include teacher education and the production of appropriately engaging free of charge Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) text books, as well as promoting invention through public libraries and museums.
Pundits agree that a good IP education system can make or break a country. This is because IP is a basic part of people's education and culture. Many people innovate, invent, and develop ideas, and then create material and equipment that others can use for their own educational and cultural purpose. It is important to teach children and youngsters that what they are seeing, hearing and feeling were someone's ideas and creations and that they deserve to be respected. These children and youngsters could be those creators, innovators, and inventors in the not too distant future.
A good education system is that which is capable of transforming people’s lives, spur industrialisation and economic growth. This does not happen by a chance. Rather, it is informed by meticulous planning and appreciation of Intellectual Property by authorities concerned. IP education means the skills and competences that young people can be expected to acquire in the classroom that enable them to become familiar with intellectual property, understand its potential to generate income and economic growth and lead them to respect intellectual property rights, whether their own or those of others.
As we debate and make proposals on the current curriculum, it is good to consider incorporating IP right from primary school level to tertiary institutions, if the aspiration of transforming Kenya into newly industrialized country by year 2030 is anything to go buy. Furthermore, KICD should comply with 2010 constitution, particularly Section 40 (5), which reads in part; “The State shall support, promote and protect the intellectual property rights of the people of Kenya.” It goes without saying that incorporation of IP education in Kenya’s school curriculum will be the best gift to the country’s industrialization agenda.
The writer is Intellectual property, Communications and PR practitioner [email protected]