A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE NEW KENYA PRIMARY SCHOOL SYLLABUS AND A PROPOSAL FOR ITS REVISION

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relevance of the new Primary School Syllabus of Kenya (1967) to the rural primary school children and to rural economic development. Education under the British was often criticized (by Europeans) as being alien and unresponsive to the needs of the African people. Since independence, government educational policy has emphasized the role of the school in changing attitudes and habits and creating a new commitment of rural life and agricultural development. The study assumed that the new syllabus would express this new emphasis on education as a change agent. After a brief discussion of the pre- and post-independence elementary education and its impact on the society as a whole, a comparison of the 1967 syllabus with that of 1962, which it replaced, was undertaken. This comparative approach had a dual purpose; to determine the degree of divergence of the new from the bid syllabus and the relevance of the changed outlook to the needs of the rural areas of Kenya. It was revealed that the new syllabus, rather than revising and reordering the priorities of elementary education, was in large part, an exact copy of the earlier syllabus.