Differences In Science Education In Kenya And Japan.

SHIMANE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCES THE DIFFERENCES IN SCIENCE EDUCATION IN KENYA AND JAPAN Dullu Amos D. / Professor Funaki Kenji.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION Kenya is a developing country with a population of 37million people and its education system is still not advanced and the nation has a literacy level of 77%. The availability of resources is minimal and personnel are not enough and hence 40% of the schools are under-staffed both in terms of resources and personnel. The fact that the labor force is not enough does not mean the country has a shortage of trained personnel in the education sector but rather the government is unable to employ them to offset the shortage due to limited budgetary allocated funds. The country departed from the earlier trend where donor partners would finance the hiring and partial payment of teachers especially the World Bank to fully funding its budgetary allocations from the taxes the government collects from the country without depending and factoring in funds from donor partners for the last seven (7) years. When the donor partners used to participate in joint funding, teachers were hired on a yearly basis but now they are still hired on a yearly basis but on needs basis hence only filling vacancies arising through natural attrition and retirement of already serving teachers. Japan is a developed country with both resources and personnel and literacy levels of 99.9% hence the government does not suffer from shortage of resources and personnel in its funding of the education sector. The only problem the country is facing is having enough school going age children to fill the already built schools hence instead being forced to close schools and merge others in order to contend with the problem. While Kenya is struggling to build and equip schools in order to cater for the increasing number of school going age children, Japan is not only struggling to fill their schools with school age going children but rather closing down some while merging others to fill in the gap of lack of pupils and students!

SIMILARITIES Both countries are committed to making their populations literate and put emphasis in the holistic development of the child to be able to effectively compete in the domestic and international arena. They both believe a country can’t develop unless they infuse science education and emphasize the importance of science education in achieving technological advancement and breakthrough. In both countries the number of students desiring to pursue science-related courses and even studying science subjects is very low as compared to the non-science subjects this is because they are perceived too hard to comprehend and even pass by many students .

DIFFERENCES KENYA

JAPAN

Teachers are trained in two (2) science teaching subjects.

Teachers are trained in only one (1) teaching subject.

At schools the laboratories are either there as a room or if fully built then not equipped hence science teachers are required to improvise and carry out experiments.

No improvisation for everything is provided for and the teacher is required only to prepare for his lesson.

In the field as a science teacher it’s you alone and there is no team teaching for you will be posted to a school and found out you’re the only science teacher in the school so independence is encouraged at the college level. Only a few schools induct their new science teachers due to acute shortage of teachers hence once posted you hit the ground running even teaching examination classes. Science curriculum is heavily loaded and exam oriented and national exams are taken both Theory Questions and Practical Questions so preparation is very thorough. Schools build and equip their

Here team teaching is the norm of the day and every school is well staffed and there is no school where one goes and finds he/she is the only science teacher. New science teachers are inducted into the job and are assigned a senior teacher for job training and familiarization of the students and curriculum. Curriculum is less loaded and students take national exams and no practical examinations are administered. Schools are built and furnished by the government hence laboratory chemicals are replaced upon usage and students are exposed to experiments since chemicals are not a

laboratories and only the government gives small grants to fill the gap hence laboratory chemicals are not for everyday use but rather only when necessary so exposure of students to experiments is not 100%. Students are less dependent on the science teacher and they are encouraged to be independent due to heavy workload on the teacher.

problem to procure and pay for. Students depend on the teacher for instructions and closer supervision even during the experiments and students here rarely take risks but rather they fear to fail and hence at every stage they relay on the teacher for everything and are guided to the answer as opposed to their counter parts in Kenya who learn to take risks and manipulate apparatus with the worksheet to realize results and only ask when they are 100% unsure.

CONCLUSION Kenya in addressing the issue of declining results and lack of interest by students to undertake science subjects have come up with SMASSE where a forum is created for science teachers all over the country come together yearly to share challenges and come up with innovations that will captivate and maintain interest to learners who are studying science. This has not only addressed the problem of poor results in the math’s and sciences but also seen an increase of students taking and performing well in maths and the sciences. The quality grades are on the steady increase for the last five (5) years and this pioneer project that was introduced in Kenya and partly funded by Japan (JICA) and the GOK (MOE) is now a model in Africa where other countries have come to Kenya for induction and hence implementing in their countries since they have been facing similar problems and could not come up with a program to tackle the predicament of which Kenya managed to solve. I believe Japan as country since they already have such forums they need to continue on and now make adjustments to suit every region.

Abbreviations  SMASSE-Strengthening Mathematics And Sciences in Secondary Education. JICA-Japan International Co-operation Agency.  GOK-Government Of Kenya.  MOE-Ministry Of Education.