ANALYSIS OF KENYA’S PROGRESS TOWARD A KNOWLEDGE BASED SOCIETY

Abstract

Education and training plays an important role in creating the required human resource necessary for the development of a country. Kenya’s development blue print, the vision 2030 in its social pillar recognizes the education sector as vital in meeting the human resources requirements of “a rapidly changing and more diverse economy” (Republic of Kenya, 2013). Kenya has made great progress in the development of skills and competencies necessary for effective participation in a knowledge based society. This paper seeks to explore how the country has made progress in educating its citizens and developing a human resource for the knowledge based society. The paper explores the concepts of knowledge based society and human development in general and in the Kenya context. The country’s aspirations as contained in the vision 2030 are summarized with a view to showing how the country is transforming into a knowledge based society through the adoption of information communication and technology (ICT), Science, technology andinnovation (ST&I), mobile communication, internet penetration and increased access to higher education. University education in Kenya is analyzed in order to show how it can contribute to the realization of the knowledge based society. Some of the emerging issues and challenges that affect Kenya’s educating for the knowledge based are highlighted and suggestions given on the way forward.