Education experts have criticised the government
Education experts have criticised the government
Education experts have criticised the government over how it has rolled out the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) even as a task force continues to collect views from the public on the contested education system.
The task force appointed by President William Ruto began visits across all 47 counties this month to collect views from the public and various stakeholders on how CBC should be improved.
But although some education experts think the shift from the 8-4-4 system to CBC is good, they have poked holes at the curriculum’s implementation.
Led by former Migori Woman representative Dr Pamela Odhiambo, the experts who appeared on Citizen TV’s Day Break program on Tuesday cited various shortcomings among them lack of preparedness.
“The abstract idea behind CBC is not bad. However, from the onset, the question we are still asking today is about its timing. Various scholars and concerned organisations raised it. The issue was with rushing to do it without the holistic picture of what it would do to various stakeholders, the requirements. Even if we close our eyes and continue, at some point, tour children are going to ground to a halt,” said Dr Odhiambo.
Molo MP Kuria Kimani concurred with Odhiambo and picked an issue with what he termed as a lack of adequate public participation before the new curriculum was introduced.
“The idea was brilliant, how it was done is where the problem is. Speaking of public participation, when we say we don’t want to listen to that mama mboga on the street is very dangerous because she is the one who has been doing homework for the child,” he said.
“This is a good curriculum, but how about its implementation, and our preparedness? There is a video clip of kids swimming in the sand because there is supposed to be a swimming lesson but the school did not have a pool,” he added.
According to the MP, the CBC task force should give proper guidelines on everything needed to support the roll-out of the curriculum to avoid disadvantaging learners.
His sentiments were echoed by Janet Ouko, who said as it stands with the start of the 2023 academic year just two months away, the secondary schools are not prepared to accommodate junior secondary students.
She pointed out that parents are also stranded on the way forward, given they will be expected to prepare their children come January next year.
“We cannot wait until December to tell them we are proceeding with CBC and there are also other responsibilities that the ministry should undertake because I understand there are books that have not even been printed, and the issues of budgeting,” said Ouko.
“We expect to see a lot of preparedness otherwise January is going to be very rough for parents and learners”
On the ongoing public participation exercise, Ouko termed it pretentious, saying it does not cover much of Kenya’s ‘ordinary’ population the government is purporting to engage in the forums.
“When you look at a setup where you come to Nairobi and you want to talk to people at Taifa Hall in the University of Nairobi, what people are you talking about? The talk has been that we are talking to mama mbogas, but I don’t know that you can speak to the millions in Nairobi in one meeting,” she said.
According to Ouko, the exercise has been characterised by “exaggerations” of its scope.
“There are aspects of curriculum development that cannot be negotiated in a hall. Unfortunately, that is the truth. There are those pretending to want to speak to mama mbogas but curriculum development is an expert issue so we need to be told clearly what is being discussed with the people,” she said.
“You can’t draw anyone from the street, bring them to KICD. We need to be honest with the people because this is the future of our children we are dealing with,” Ouko added.
According to a letter sent to all regional directors regarding public participation, they are expected to invite key stakeholders in the education sector including Governors, County commissioners and other administration officers, Representatives of Primary and Secondary schools heads, Trade Unions and parents’ representatives, faith-based organisations, among other stakeholders.
In order to meet the set deadline of six months, the task force has divided its 49 members into 10 working teams.
In the gazette notice dated September 29, 2022, the task force is also mandated to review and recommend an appropriate financing framework including capitation and minimum essential package grants for all levels of basic education.
Further, the task force is mandated to review and recommend a framework of operationalising the National Open University of Kenya and a framework on Open Distance and E-line learning (ODEL).
