Address the lingering uncertainties over CBC – Business Daily
Grade Three learners at Patrician Primary School-Kabongo in Eldoret being examined in the recent national assessment under CBC. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NMG
Of all the decisions the new administration has so far taken to reverse or review the policies of its predecessor, the one on the education curriculum is perhaps the most consequential.
This is because the future of an estimated 18 million Kenyan children in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools depends on the decision.
The presidential taskforce appointed by President William Ruto to review the implementation of the new competency-based curriculum (CBC) has already signalled changes, recommending that junior secondary school classes be domiciled in primary schools in its preliminary report for example.
This is a radical departure from the position of the previous administration, which had placed grades 7, 8 and 9 in secondary schools and spent billions of shillings constructing classrooms to accommodate an estimated 1.2 million learners.
About 9,700 junior secondary classrooms had been reportedly constructed by the time of the power transition in September this year.
The decision by the task force, which has up to March to submit its final report, on the junior secondary school was probably the right one given the uncertainty over the transition path for Grade 6 learners who took their Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) tests last week.
But uncertainties still linger over other issues that the government needs to address urgently.
It is not clear, for example, whether enough teachers will be recruited or redeployed between now and January to handle the junior secondary classes.
