Fight against doping finds new partner in schools

The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has partnered with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to develop an Anti- Doping Values-Based Education program which will be embedded in schools curriculum.

The proposed curriculum is expected to instil a positive culture and values in learners thus creating an environment that will promote the spirit of sport.

Speaking during the unveiling of the partnership, ADAK chief executive Officer Japhter Rugut said that the first step will be conducting a national needs assessment on Values-Based Education (VBE).

“What we are engaging in is a partnership which will culminate in the development of a value-based curriculum which will eventually be entrenched into schools curricular. But before then we have a series of consultative activities which have already been undertaken.”

Rugut added that the planning meetings have already been conducted and so is the pilot program which covered three counties.

He further noted that the three-year partnership will include, among other things, mainstreaming and implementation of the Anti-Doping Values-Based Education curriculum which will entail eleven extensive steps among them being planning of meetings, national needs assessment on values-based education, mainstreaming VBE into the curriculum, course panel meetings, academic committee meeting, development of curriculum support materials on values-based education and capacity building for teachers and other curriculum implementers.

In order to roll out the programme, the two entities intend to orient an initial 400 hundred teachers and field officers in identified counties at a larger stage of the implementation of the agreement.

This will be preceded by the production of VBE curriculum support material for middle years of education for 235 schools.

For his part, KICD Chief Executive Officer Dr. Julius Jwan, in a speech read by his Adak counterpart Rugut said that the establishment of the Values-Based Education through the whole school approach is one of the major curriculum reforms initiatives.

The move to introduce anti-doping education in schools comes in the wake of heightened doping scandals involving a number of Kenyan athletes.

This has tarnished the image of the country and the anti-doping agency is seemingly keen to adopt different strategies to arrest the vice.

Athletics Kenya have also been running several sensitization campaigns amongst athletes with a goal of ensuring that the athletes do not fall into the temptation of using banned substances.