Why should not all students receive remedial instruction?
Belio Kipsang, the Principal Secretary for Basic Education, has underlined the restriction on remedial instruction, which many primary and secondary school principals use. He stressed that the eight school hours required by the Basic Education Regulations 2015 for curriculum delivery in basic education institutions should be enough to cover the syllabus.
Remediation or remedial instruction has traditionally been a typical aspect of the curriculum delivery process. It is aimed to help students who are falling behind in their studies or who are having difficulty with specific courses. In a 2008 Circular, former Permanent Secretary for Education Karega Mutahi backed the notion of rehabilitation.
Remedial tuition is often included in educational policies, curricula, and standards to ensure that no child attending school falls behind. Students have different skills and learning styles, which can lead to variances in how quickly they grasp what is presented in class.
If not handled promptly, this variation might lead to learning difficulties and, in some circumstances, behavioral or motivational concerns. Remedial education can assist in the development of core abilities such as reading, writing, numeracy, and critical thinking.
Remedial instruction should be directed precisely at learners who display deficiencies that cause them to fall behind their colleagues in the usual learning process. The school should keep a list of such students and distribute it to the principle and the curriculum deputy.
Schools risk advancing students to new subject without ensuring they have fully mastered the required knowledge, skills, attitudes, or behavioral patterns in the absence of expert remedial teaching. This can lead to the learning gap that educators and politicians frequently highlight.
A learning gap is the difference between what a student has learnt and what they should have learned at a certain stage in their schooling. When creating the school calendar, policymakers take into account a variety of elements, including child psychology.
They take into account elements such as students’ abilities, ability diversity, attention span, and pauses for relaxation, lunch, recreation, weekends, and holidays. These considerations have an impact on the organization of school hours, such as the 8 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. system that is used globally.
Section 84 of the 2015 Basic Education Regulations gives policy direction on school hours, with the goal of preserving the integrity of the official school calendar. Extending curriculum delivery outside of school hours was prohibited due to worries that students would be deprived of opportunity to relax, gain social skills, and interact with classmates and adults.
