International Journal of Innovative Research and Knowledge                                       Volume-3 Issue-10, October-2018  
                INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF 
        INNOVATIVE RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE 
        ISSN-2213-1356                                                                                                                      www.ijirk.com 
       
       
       
      CURRICULUM RELEVANCE: A CASE OF VOCATIONAL 
         EDUCATION CURRICULUM IN THE 8-4-4 SYSTEM 
                   OF EDUCATION IN KENYA 
       
       
               
                       Dr. Kimiti Richard Peter, PhD. 
                           Senior Lecturer 
                         Dean, Graduate School, 
                          Machakos University 
                           Machakos, Kenya 
               
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
      Abstract 
      The quality vocational education in Kenya has been an area of concern since in mid-1980s. This concern 
      about the vocational education curriculum has persisted since the change of the former technical education 
      school  curriculum.  It  is  also  closely  related  to  the  little  emphasis  given  to  vocational  education, 
      mismanagement and degradation of the vocational training facilities by policy makers in Kenya. The holistic 
      review of vocational education curriculum has also not been given the seriousness it deserves. The purpose of 
      this study was therefore to investigate the scope of the content of vocational education in the 8-4-4 secondary 
      school curriculum in Kenya. It was guided by two research objectives, that is, to examine the objectives of 
      vocational  education  in  the  secondary  school  curriculum  and  to  establish  the  scope  of  the  vocational 
      education in the secondary school curriculum. This study adopted qualitative research design. It was carried 
      out in 15 secondary schools in three counties in Kenya and used a sample of 36 teacher interviewees. The 
      results of the study revealed that although the general aims of vocational education in the secondary school 
      curriculum were clear and relevant the focus was more on knowledge compared to the acquisition of skills. 
      The study further revealed that the scope of the content of vocational education was shallow though broad in 
      Business  Studies,  Computer  Science  and  Industrial  education.  It  was  satisfactory  in  Home  science  and 
      Agriculture.  It  was  therefore  concluded  that  both  the  aims  and  content  of  vocational  education  were 
      inadequate in the 8-4-4 curriculum. The study recommends that the vocational education curriculum should 
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              International Journal of Innovative Research and Knowledge                                                                            ISSN-2213-1356 
              be reviewed to make it relevant to the needs of the learner and curriculum developers at the Kenya Institute of 
              Curriculum Development should ensure that all topics have a good scope and sequence.  
               
              Key words: Aims, curriculum, education, scope and vocational. 
               
               
              1.0  Introduction 
              The teaching of vocational education in the formal school curriculum in Kenya started during the colonial era 
              and in 1924, when the Phelps- Stock commission recommended that there should be expansion of agricultural 
              and industrial education1. Beecher (1949) further emphasized the importance of vocational education when he 
              stated the need for the creation of positive attitudes towards industrial education and agriculture in the African 
                         2
              curriculum . Although vocational education was given more prominence during the formal school curriculum, 
              it was strongly resented by the Africans as they perceived it as the white man’s’ attempt to keep them in an 
              inferior position. This implies that the implementation of was vocational and technical education was met with 
              several draw backs, which hindered its successful implementation. 
               
              Several studies on technical and vocational education reveal that Kenya inherited a system of education that 
                                                                                                     3, 4
              was not capable of meeting the social and economic needs of the African child.             In attempt to mitigate this 
              challenges, the Government of Kenya has appointed several Commissions of Education since attaining her 
                                      5
              independence in 1963.   For instance, immediately after independence in 1963, the government appointed the 
              first post independent commission of education (The Ominde Commission) to investigate the relevance of the 
              school curriculum.6 Among the objectives of the Ominde commission were; advise the government on the 
              formulation  and  implementation  of  national  policies  for  education  and  address  problems  inherited  from 
              colonial government to make education more responsive to the needs of the country. Based on the latter 
              objective,  the  Ominde  Commission came up with the following recommendations; agriculture was to be 
              offered as part of general science in a revised syllabus and not as a separate subject. Art and Craft was also 
              included in the school curriculum for motor control and coordination. In addition, music was introduced in the 
              curriculum  as  a  way  of  promoting  nationhood,  patriotism  and  national  unity.  A  critical  analysis  of  this 
              curriculum revealed that it acknowledged the need to equip learners with technical skills and vocational 
              education. Special emphasis was given to teaching of vocational education at both the primary and secondary 
              levels  of  education.  This  curriculum  was  however  criticized  for  failing  to  give  clear  guidelines  on  its 
              implementation and in particular on how to address the problem of negative attitudes towards vocational 
                                       1  
              education by Kenyans.   
               
              The Kenyan’s Government commitment towards inculcation of technical skills and vocational education was 
              further  echoed  by  the  National  Committee  on  Educational  Objectives  and  Policies  (NCEOP)  which  is 
              popularly known as Gachathi Report (1976). Similarly, the Gachathi Report also gave special emphasis to the 
              restructuring of the school curriculum as a way of effectively addressing basic needs of the school leavers and 
              also addressing the problem of unemployment. Interesting, the Committee, identified the teaching of technical 
              and vocational education as the main approach of addressing the problem of unemployment and at the same 
              time  also  increasing  the  income/  earning  opportunities  for  school  leavers.7  The  Gachathi  report  like  the 
              Ominde  Commission  also  strongly  pointed  out  the  importance  of  changing  learners’  attitudes  toward 
              agriculture, technical and vocational subjects as a way of avoiding the bottlenecks experienced during the 
              implementation of the recommendations made by the Ominde Commission.2 The Kenya Technical Training 
              College was mandated to focus on the training of teachers for technical education since they could play a 
              crucial role of instilling positive attitudes among the learners towards blue collar jobs. Emanating from these 
              recommendations, the Government of Kenya once more reinvested enormous resources in the implementation 
              of technical and vocational education. This lead to the development of twenty one technical secondary schools 
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               International Journal of Innovative Research and Knowledge                                       Volume-3 Issue-10, October-2018  
               all over the country, which were an equivalent of national secondary schools in the defunct 7-4-2-3 system of 
               education in Kenya.9  
                
               In 1986, a new system of education (the 8-4-4 system), which replaced the defunct 7-4-2-3 education system 
               was introduced in Kenya as a result of the recommendations of The Report of the Presidential Working Party 
               on the Second University in Kenya.10 One of the major changes in the 8-4-4 system which is relevant to this 
               study was elimination of the technical schools. However, as a remedy, the 8-4-4 school curriculum was 
               expanded to accommodate a number of new subjects such as vocational subjects with the aim of making 
               school leavers to be self-reliant. The vocational component of the school curriculum comprises of home 
               science, business studies, computer studies, agriculture and industrial education. Business studies includes: 
               commerce, economics accounting and office practice whereas industrial education comprises of metalwork, 
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               power mechanics, woodwork, drawing and design, electricity, building and construction.    
                
               Objectives of the Study 
               This study was guided by two objectives: to examine the objectives of vocational education in the secondary 
               school curriculum and to establish the scope of the vocational education in the secondary school curriculum. 
                 
               Significance of the Study 
               The findings of this study would be of immediate benefit to curriculum developers at Kenya Institute of 
               Curriculum Development when reviewing the vocational education curriculum in order to make it relevant to 
               needs of the society. Further, the study findings would also provide curriculum developers at the Kenya 
               Institute of Curriculum Development with new knowledge about the teachers’ opinions about the scope of the 
               vocational education component at the secondary school level.  Apart from teachers, the stakeholders would 
               also get current information on the quality of vocational education offered to their children in the secondary 
               school curriculum. Finally, the results of this study would add more information to the present literature on 
               content of the current vocational education curriculum at the secondary school level in Kenya. 
                
               Limitations of the Study 
               This study was limited by a number of variables.  First literature on vocational education in Kenya was scanty.  
               For  this  reason,  the  literature  review  was  drawn  from  primary  sources  such  as  syllabuses,  educational 
               commissions and government policy documents.  Secondly,  it  was  also  limited  by  respondent’s  personal 
               attributes such as abilities, personality and competency. Due to financial constraints, the study was limited a 
               small sample of only the teacher respondents who taught vocational education at the secondary school level.  
                
               Delimitation of the Study  
               This study delimited itself to the content of vocational education at the secondary school level in the 8-4-4 
               system of education in Kenya. This decision was taken due time and financial constraints.  
                
               2.0 Methodology of Research 
               The  study  was  qualitative  in  nature  and  it  was  conducted  in  15  secondary  schools  offering  vocational 
               education in Nairobi, Machakos and Nyeri counties in Kenya. The respondents of the study were 3 teachers of 
               Art and Design, 3 teachers of Home science, 9 teachers of Business Studies, 4 teachers of Agriculture, 5 
               teachers of Computer Science and 12 teachers of Industrial Education yielding a total of 36 respondents. 
               Purposive sampling technique was used to select the subjects of the study. Data was collected through a 
               document  analysis  of  primary  data;  secondary  vocational  education  school  syllabuses,  Commissions  of 
               Education  and  Working  Party  reports.  This  data  was  complimented  by  interviews  with  the  teacher 
               respondents. 
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                     International Journal of Innovative Research and Knowledge                                                                            ISSN-2213-1356 
                     3.0 Results of the Study 
                     The  first  objective  of  the  study  was  to  establish  the  learning  objectives  of  vocational  education  in  the 
                     secondary school curriculum. A documentary analysis of three different volumes of the vocational education 
                     syllabuses revealed that there several aims of vocational education: promotion of education and training that 
                     responds to Kenya’s overall economic development and in specific sectors such as agriculture, industry and 
                     commerce; exposure of students to scientific and technological trends, skills and ideas and promotion of 
                     lifelong skills that enable learners to better adjust to their work and domestic worlds through the inculcation of 
                     competencies  that  promote  creativity,  communication,  cooperation,  innovativeness  and  problem-solving 
                     abilities; provision of increased training opportunities for the rising numbers of school-leavers with a view to 
                     preparing them for self-reliance and self-employment through the promotion of practical skills and attitudes; 
                     development of vocational entrepreneurial skills as the basis for further individual development; improvement 
                     of the production of skilled artisans, technicians and technologists for both the formal and informal sectors 
                     and preparation of students for further training in post-secondary middle-level training institutions as well as 
                                             11,12,  13,   14
                     the university.                       . Apart from documentary analysis, 78.2% teacher respondents also confirmed that 
                     these were the objectives of vocational education at the secondary school level in Kenya. The study also found 
                     out that general aims of teaching the various vocational subjects were clearly listed under each respective 
                     subject.  Nevertheless  the  subject  objectives  were  closely  related  to  the  general  objectives  of  vocational 
                     education at the secondary school level.  
                      
                     According to 91.67% teacher interviewees, vocational education in the current secondary school curriculum is 
                     offered under as applied sciences which comprises of the following subjects; Home science, Business Studies, 
                     Agriculture, Computer science and Industrial Education. The results of the study on the adequacy of the 
                     subject matter in the respective subjects varied from one subject to the other. For instance 43.5% teacher 
                     respondents who taught agriculture revealed that subject matter was inadequate in topics on crop and livestock 
                     production, and farm machinery. Other 36.7% teacher interviewees stated that it was satisfactory in the topic 
                     on farm structures, whereas 18.4% stated that it was very shallow in the topic on agricultural economics. On 
                     the other hand, 86.1% teacher interviewees reported that the scope of most topics on Business Studies was 
                     shallow. Majority (94.9%) of the teacher interviewees reported that there were a few topics which were above 
                     the student’s level of understanding. The study further found out that Business Studies curriculum comprised 
                     of four major areas; accounting, commerce, economics and typewriting.  
                      
                     Home science was found to be among the vocational subjects, which had been offered in the secondary school 
                     curriculum since the inception of the 8-4-4 system of education. The Home science subject comprised of five 
                     main topics; home management, food and nutrition, clothing and textile, and consumer education. According 
                     to 79.6% home science teacher interviewees the subject was too broad and its content in the first four topics 
                     were  extremely  very  shallow.  According  to  the  documentary  analysis,  computer  studies  subject  was 
                     introduced as a vocational education subject in the mid-1990s14. The topics taught in this subject according to 
                     the 80.9% teacher interviewees included: introduction to computer studies, computer and its components, use 
                     of computers, basic computer concepts, word processing, programming and fundamentals of spreadsheets, 
                     application areas, databases, networks, data communications and impact of computer technology on society. 
                     The results of the study revealed that 76.3% of the teacher interviewees who taught the subject reported that 
                     its scope was also shallow and broad at the secondary school level. 
                      
                     The industrial education curriculum was organized around six subject areas; electricity, metalwork, building 
                     and construction, technical drawing and design, power mechanics and woodwork. According to 75% teacher 
                     interviewees,  who  taught  electricity,  the  subject  matter  was  very  basic  in  the  entire  secondary  school 
                     curriculum. A similar sentiment was reported for metalwork subject by 66.7% teacher interviewees who 
                     taught  the  subject.  The  results  of  the  study  from  60%  teacher  interviewees  who  taught  Building  and 
                     Construction  reported  that  its  scope  was  satisfactory  but  required  to  be  improved.  However,  the  teacher 
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