Olive Mbuthia
Deputy Director, Pre-Primary And Primary Education, Kenya Institute Of Curriculum Development
Bold Question: What if the country could achieve high levels of integrity within its citizenry?
Path to Metis: Olive’s journey in education started three decades ago when she graduated from Kenyatta University with a Bachelor’s degree in Education (Home Economics). She was posted as a tutor in a teachers’ training college where most of the learners were about her age.
A few years of teaching and the urge to advance her career saw her try to get back to university to pursue a Master’s degree. She responded to an advert to join the Kenya Institute of Education as a curriculum developer and was successful. This began her journey as a curriculum developer where she honed her skills in curriculum development as well as her writing skills. She was involved in writing the first syllabus on HIV and Aids as well as the learner books on the same subject.
Noting the poor state of children’s health and nutrition that led to poor participation and performance in education led her to be more interested in issues of health and nutrition of learners. She was able to work with many institutions dealing with learners’ health and nutrition such as the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), Glaxo SmithKline, African Population and Health Research Centre as well as the Ministry of health. She has been involved in co-authoring many books for learners.
She has been involved in the review of the various curriculum in the country and most importantly the recent Curriculum reforms in the country where she spearheaded the preprimary and primary curriculum.
Her work in curriculum development earned her a scholarship for a Masters degree at Monash University in Victoria, Australia. This was funded by AusAID. She was also awarded a scholarship for a postgraduate diploma in curriculum design and development by UNESCO at Open University of Tanzania. She has also been a consultant in Somalia and Sudan on curriculum development
Currently, Olive is the Deputy, Director in charge of Pre-primary and Primary Education.
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