Debate about errors in books was blown out of proportion

Quality education is the primary investment for socio-economic development, and books play a crucial and irreplaceable role in achieving this. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The allegations were being fed into a rapidly expanding echo chamber whose intention was clear; manufacture a scandal; rally angry parents and Kenyans in general to put pressure on the government to arrive at pre-determined outcomes.
  • Chief among the outcomes, as envisaged by Mr Waweru, was for an ‘independent audit’ to be constituted to be preceded by the withdrawal of all ‘titles with errors’.

My attention and that of the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) fraternity has been drawn to an article titled ‘We must get to the bottom of school textbooks mistakes’ by Mr David Waweru, and published in the Saturday Nation on March 10.

Mr Waweru’s piece appeared to build on a series of articles, in the preceding week, that perpetuated the false narrative that the books which were recently distributed to public secondary schools are chocking with glaring errors and that the books are ‘below standard’. These allegations cannot go unchallenged.

The allegations were being fed into a rapidly expanding echo chamber whose intention was clear; manufacture a scandal; rally angry parents and Kenyans in general to put pressure on the government to arrive at pre-determined outcomes.

Chief among the outcomes, as envisaged by Mr Waweru, was for an ‘independent audit’ to be constituted to be preceded by the withdrawal of all ‘titles with errors’.

It is baffling that Mr Waweru, who until a few months back, was chairman of KPA, should be the public face of the campaign of disinformation and fear-mongering.

It is also instructive to note that WordAlive Publishers, the firm that Mr Waweru heads, does not deal with textbooks, but rather with Christian and motivational publications. This brings us to a most crucial question; if he does not represent KPA, then whose interests does he represent?

When the reports started appearing in the media, the public was told that it was the teachers who were complaining about ‘errors’ in the textbooks. The only ‘teachers’ quoted in the stories were union officials, an unnamed ‘publishing expert’ and a secondary school teacher ‘who did not wish to be named’.

What is the weight of the evidence adduced in the allegations? The report published by a different newspaper, and in which Mr Waweru was quoted extensively, cited errors in only two out of 36 titles that qualified to be used in schools.

And in his piece in the Saturday Nation, he said: “It has come to light that some of the new secondary school textbooks recently issued to our children… are riddled with errors, omissions and are therefore below standard.” He offers nothing in the way of evidence but proceeds to level serious allegations against fellow publishers, the Ministry of Education and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).

This brings us to the next question; should allegations by a cabal of shadowy characters be the basis of discarding an undertaking worth Sh7.5 billion?

Let me now embark on putting the record straight. First, the presence of errors and typos in textbooks cannot be denied. Anyone who knows something about publishing knows that it is not humanly possible to have an error-free book. Secondly, there are reasons why books are routinely revised; correcting errors that were detected after publication is one of them. So should two errors, nit-picked from a book that is more than 150 pages long, render that book ‘substandard’? The answer is no!

Let us now come to the new textbook distribution model that appears to have sent alarm bells to cartels that for the longest time leeched on the educational sector in this country. The reforms instituted in the book distribution chain are the cause of all this hullabaloo; the ‘glaring errors’ allegation is simply a red herring.

ANGERED

When Dr Fred Matiang’i started cleaning the Aegean stables that were the Ministry of Education, he had been angered at the corruption cartels that had sucked the sector dry.

Corrupt booksellers had teamed up with equally crooked school heads to provide ‘air’ to schools and bill the government for the same. Try as it could, the government could not attain the 1:1 ratio of books to students. This was largely thanks to those cartels.

To achieve this ratio and to ensure that school children have books, the government decided to cut off booksellers and deliver the books directly to schools. As you read this, six million books are in the hands of one million Form One students in all the 47 counties. Every student has six textbooks.

The first phase of this drive was funded by the World Bank (70 per cent) and the government (30 per cent). By the end of March, 33 million books will be in the hands of five million children in Standard Seven and Eight and thereafter from Form 2 to Form 4. Thus, in one single leap, the government was able to achieve the 1:1 book ratio and most importantly shut out corruption cartels that included book pirates.

The government was able to do all this while at the same time saving Sh13 billion. This is because it cut out on mark-ups that go to booksellers and the amount used to market these books in schools. There have been arguments to the effect that the government is driving booksellers out of business. Well, there is no express requirement that books purchased by the government should pass through bookshops. Anyone who has purchases bulk orders from publishers knows that they get up to 35 per cent discount simply because they did not pass through booksellers.

Still, the practice preferred by most governments is to deliver books directly to schools. This is done in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, India and the US. I have just returned from Turkey, where I learnt that the government supplies 273 million books to schools every year.  

In his piece, Mr Waweru mentions a non-existent ‘one book policy’. The fact of the matter is that the ministry has not changed its policy as far as books are concerned. KICD still approves six books per subject that are to be used in schools. 

Another misconception being peddled is that the vetting and approval process was done in a rush, hence the errors. Nothing can be further from the truth; the fact of the matter is that some of the books that have been delivered to schools were vetted and approved as early as 2003. These books met the necessary requirements at KICD.

Mr Waweru also argued that teachers were denied choice. This is a lazy way of looking at things. The supply of books to schools is not about teachers’ personal preferences. It is about fidelity to the syllabus. Here, it is important to clarify that capitation – the money allocated to schools to purchase supplementary reading materials – is still sent to schools and that can still be used to purchase any other books the teachers are interested in. However, the new curriculum places the learner, not books or teachers, as the centre of focus. As such, the needs of teachers are secondary to those of learners.

Shouldn’t we be happy that the government has succeeded in giving each student a book per subject, or would we rather have stuck to the old system where one book was shared among 10 students? Let us learn to give credit where it is due.

I am glad that Education CS Amina Mohamed has seen through the scheme and decided that no books will be removed from schools, and that is as it should be.

 

Mr Njagi is the chairman of the Kenya Publishers Association. email. [email protected]