Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Tuesday, September 28, called for the review of Kenya's education system
Speaking during a meeting with the Buy Kenya Build Kenya team in Nairobi, the former premier asked the government to review the curriculum to make it more beneficial to the youth.
According to the ODM Party Leader, a lot of money was being wasted by the government on an outdated curriculum.
"The curriculum really needs to be properly looked at by the government and approved, because you waste money that can be better be deployed to train somebody who is unemployable," he reiterated.
The African Union High Representative For Infrastructure Development stated the current curriculum is the nemesis of youth in the country. He explained there was a mismatch between the skills and the demand in the market.
Raila stated that most investors who come into the country willing to create employment are met with youth who are not properly adept.
"There are a number of investors looking for people to employ, but the kind of commodification our institutions are giving are irrelevant to the demand of the market," the East Africa Spectre boss added.
He also indicated that the costs of education also needed to be reviewed.
Raila stated that the cost of educating, training and equipping the youth with skills was enormous, which in turn made the cost of hiring them higher compared to hiring nationals from other countries.
He explained that the high employment wage demand scares investors who then opt to import labour that is not only more affordable but also had more expertise.
"For a quarter of what these people are earning in Kenya, you can get an engineer from India and employ a very high proficient engineer to do the same work," the handshake partner stated.
Raila asked Kenya to borrow a leaf from China- which focused on creating cheap but highly proficient labour.
He lauded the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme stating that it had done a credible job.
