Challenges of Environmental Scanning for the Curriculum Development in Kenya by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.

Abstract

Strategic management is a process that takes three steps: strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy monitoring and evaluation. Strategic managers try to answer three questions: where are we now? where do we want to be? How do we get to where we want to be? These questions are core to strategy formulation. One of the major components of strategic planning is Needs assessment. This involves Situational analysis, internal appraisal and environmental scanning. Environmental scanning helps in answering these questions and is the most important elements of strategic planning on the strength of helping organizations develop mechanisms of constantly monitoring the environment in which it operates in order to establish a strategic fit. The process of scanning has its own challenges. This study sought to identify the challenges of environmental scanning for the curriculum at KICD. The study employed a case study design and used structured interviews for data collection. Both primary and secondary data was collected. Primary data was collected through structured interviews of eight senior and deputy managers of KICD. Secondary data was collected from Assessment Reports and KICD 2010-2015 strategic plan. The study found that KICD faced various challenges in conducting an environmental scan and key among them was inadequate resources, misunderstanding of its mandate by some stake holders, political interference, time constraints and negative attitude from some stake holders and general public. These challenges are common to other settings but can be investigated further. The study recommends that the government increases its funding for KICD to enhance their work. More involvement and awareness must be created especially to teachers who are directly involved with the consumers of the curriculum to ensure thorough review. Key limitations of the study was the timing. Several senior managers were out in the field for monitoring purposes and thus getting them for interviews was not easy. When they were available again they had busy schedules thus according the researcher a limited time.