Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha has called upon parents to stop criticising Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) system.
He has asked parents to stop confusing children and politicising the new curriculum, saying it was the best thing ever to happen to the country’s education system.
Speaking at the sixth graduation ceremony at the University of Embu, Magoha maintained that CBC is here to stay and there’s no turning back.
“I want to say this in simple language… the CBC is here to stay. We have a duty as parents not to confuse our more than five million children,” he said.
“We have a duty not to confuse our over five million children by engaging in unnecessary debates. Over 228, 000 teachers had been adequately trained contrary to assertions from naysayers.”
He added that for once, Kenya’s education sector was on the right trajectory by focusing on skills and competencies of learners other than ranking and cut throat competition that has been at the center of the sector for long.
His sentiments comes as the new curriculum under heavy criticism from parents prompting Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Nelson Havi to file a petition in court to stop its roll out.
Havi argues that the roll out of the new curriculum primarily on the basis of the Basic Educational Curriculum Framework of 2017 and the Sessional Paper 1 of 2019 on curriculum reform constituted a violation of the Basic Education Act and the Constitution.
“The action by the Education Ministry to implement the new curriculum is unlawful and prejudicial to the future of the children of Kenya and ought to be halted,” read the petition.
Further, he argued that actions by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha, the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD), the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) are unlawful and prejudicial to school-going children.
According to Havi, the Ministry of Education has rolled out a curriculum for basic education purporting to phase out and replace the 8-4-4 system through sessional papers and policy instead of legislation.
Additionally, he says that there’s no identifiable document or instrument upon which the CBC curriculum can be traced as one developed in the manner set out in section 73 and 74 of the Basic Education Act NO. 14 2013 as read together with section 4 of the KICD Act No.4 OF 2013.
Havi says that there is wide public outcry in the manner in which the CBC curriculum has been imported from other jurisdictions without due process of the laws applied in basic education.