As the world marks international teachers day, a section of Kenyan teachers has accused the Government of making rush decisions in implementing the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC).
The curriculum has seen stakeholders including teachers and parents left out from making their opinions about it.
It is only a few days ago that President William Ruto set up a task force to review the current education system. The task force is made up of 42 members and 7 secretaries.
Joseph Juma Musakali, a lecturer at Moi University says that CBC contains some issues which needed to be removed and that is why the president appointed the task force. He maintains that the curriculum is beneficial to the children as it focuses more on practical aspects.
“CBC is not a bad thing only that there are a few issues which need to be addressed. The new government did a good job by appointing a task force to review the curriculum and we hope that in the end everybody will be satisfied,” said Musakali.
The good and bad of CBC
The teachers however cited overworking in classrooms as one of the main challenges of CBC. Musakali says they have to take the children through multiple activities each day.
“The main challenge of CBC is that teachers are straining in classrooms but this does not mean that we should rubbish the curriculum. The good side of the curriculum outweighs the bad side therefore we hope that the task force comes out with the best decision,” noted the Moi University lecturer.
The task force will be chaired by Professor Raphael Munavu. Some of the members include the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) Doctor David Njoroge and Vince Chancellors of the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University together with award-winning teacher Peter Tabichi.
Meanwhile, the first batch of CBC learners is expected to join Junior Secondary in January 2023.
The government has been gradually rolling out CBC (2-6-6-3) replacing 8-4-4.
