Goals help both the curriculum planner and the teacher in decision – making in various ways.

• To select the general programme content.
• To decide on relevant subject areas for the courses already identified for realizing the broad aims of education.
• To decide on specific subject content, experiences and related exposures in a subject area so as to promote the understanding of that subject at a relevant level of the school system e.g. form 2 English.
• To decide on specific instructional experiences for a single lesson or through other exposures within the framework of the school timetable.

​Kenya uses aims, goals and objectives in educational planning (Nasibi, 2003). The national goals of education are derived from the general aims of education.
General aims being broad and often abstract in their expression are unable to offer particular achievements within specified time limits therefore are used to offer general guidance on educational intention and to guide the formulation of educational goals.
Due to their significance in offering specific direction, Kenya has kept reviewing its goals of education to suit her prevailing circumstances.
At independence in 1963, Kenya inherited a system of education that had been designed in colonial times to suit the needs of the colonial administration.
​The new government found it necessary to revise the whole school curriculum and state clearly the national goals of education in an independent state.
This important task was first undertaken by the Kenya Education commission in 1964 which became the well-known Ominde Report.
​It outlined six National Goals of Education which the educational system was expected to fulfil. These goals were later revised and as explained by the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE, 2002), they are as follows: