The Kenya Kwanza Alliance (KKA) has assured major changes in the education sector should it form the next government.
Led by Deputy President William Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi (ANC) and Ford Kenya Party leader Moses Wetang’ula, said the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) is a burden to ordinary Kenyans.
“ANC supremo says CBC was hurriedly implemented without wide and genuine consultations with stakeholders and the new system is a big burden and an academic frustration to Kenyan parents,” Mudavadi said.
He stated that the initiative was launched in haste and without engagement with stakeholders.
Through his party, the ANC leader stated that the CBC system is a burden on parents in the country.
The controversial Competence-Based-Curriculum of education will be scrapped once the Ruto/Mudavadi government takes power in August,” he said on Twitter.
The pioneer class of the CBC is currently in Grade 5 and will transit to Grade 6 in April this year.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been faulted for failing to train teachers on the CBC.
MPs Hillary Kosgei (Kipkelion West), Joseph Limo (Kipkelion East), Wilson Sossion (nominated) and former lawmakers Langat Magere and Jackson Rop faulted the quality of training conducted by TSC.
The MPs questioned the implementation of the new curriculum set to be rolled out in Secondary Schools next year claiming that Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha was bulldozing through an education system that was bound to fail due poor implementation.
“We have repeatedly raised the grey areas in implementation of the CBC but as unionists, professional teachers and leaders, but the government has closed all its doors that would have addressed the issues. We are confident that a new government will correct the anomalies at the end of this year,” said nominated MP Wilson Sossion.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Collins Oyuu said that the country is facing a serious shortage of teachers, a matter that needs intervention by Parliament to allocate funds to TSC to employ more than 30,000 trained tutors.
“It’s unfortunate that the ministry has focused on expanding infrastructure but neglecting training of teachers,” he said.
Speaking after a meeting with Narok County, Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Secretary General Akello Misori said public participation was not conducted before implementation of the curriculum.
“The 8-4-4 system had challenges that were not addressed. We cannot jump into another programme that has glaring issues. We must ensure we get it right from the beginning so as to build the people’s confidence in the education system,” said Kuppet vice-chairman Julius Korir.
TSC plans to train the first batch of 60,000 teachers when schools close next month.
According to TSC boss Nancy Macharia, 229, 292 primary school teachers from both public and private schools for Grades One to Five and 1,166 tutors from different colleges have already been trained.
