Education reforms in Kenya for Innovation.

Abstract

Education is a vital tool in the development of any country including Kenya. Education plays a significant role in economic, social and political development of a country. Education development would lead to accelerated economic growth, more wealth and income distribution, greater quality of opportunity, availability of skilled manpower, decline in population growth, long life, better health outcomes, low crimes rate, national unity and political stability Otiato, (2009); Schultz, (1981); Harbison, (1973); Psacharopoulos,(1988); Abagi and Okech, (1997); Amutabi, (2003) among others. This belief has made many countries including Kenya to invest immensely in education to foster economic growth, productivity, contribute to national and social development thereby reducing social inequality. It is against this backdrop that the Government of Kenya since independence made education reform as its main objective since 1963. Arising from the above, education reform for innovation was investigated. Historical method of study was used which utilized mainly secondary and primary sources of data. The main sources of primary data were Government Commissions and other policy documents like Sessional Papers, Acts of Parliaments related to education in Kenya after independence. The first one being Ominde Commission of 1964 (GOK, 1964) up to Sessional Paper Number 1 of 2005 (MOE, 2005).The main sources of secondary data includes written documents such as books, journals, newspapers among others. They formed the basis of the discussion and analysis of the study. In this study, education reforms in Kenya has been investigated to find out whether the education reforms are yielding innovation in education in line with Vision 2030.