, NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 15 – Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed says implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum will kick off in January 2020.
Speaking after chairing a meeting of the National Steering Committee on Curriculum Reform, she said the new curriculum pilot will continue for another year to allow for alignment in the education sector.
“The National Steering Committee has resolved the following; the CBC national pilot be extended for one more year to allow alignment in the implementation, particularly, intensive in-service teacher training. The training of tutors for teacher training colleges will commence in January 2019,” she said.
The Education CS also announced that she has established a secretariat within the ministry to co-ordinate the priorities, activities and communication of the curriculum.
“The curriculum focus in the ministry will be re-organised to secure supervision and evaluation of the CBC in all private, public and special needs institutions in the country,” the Education CS told a news conference after the three hour meeting with education stakeholders.
She directed the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards to track implementation of the curriculum in all sub-counties across the country and the training of quality assurance officers that will commence in February 2019.
“As we move forward we will ensure that the strategic design that we have and the reality that is currently obtaining on the ground will be aligned. We will reconvene on Thursday to look at any other issues that we think are critical for the CBC and what we intend to do next year and the year 2020,” the CS said in her closing remarks.
The meeting was convened amid uproar occasioned by the CS’s decision to defer the implementation of the new curriculum.
The Education CS on Tuesday told the Senate Education Committee that the implementation of the Competence Based Curriculum cannot be rushed.
Mohamed and her Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said the education docket is still facing challenges especially teacher shortage that needs to be addressed to avoid causing discomfort to the pupils once the transition takes place.
The pilot project that saw over 20,000 teachers trained has been ongoing for Grade 1, 2 and 3 since its inception this year.
She noted that curriculum was poorly planned and hastily introduced in schools.
“The process did not carefully consider resource constraints and was not given the necessary strategic interventions at the inception stage. The role of the teacher was marginal, leading to lack of by-in and comprehension of the structure by teachers,” she stated.
The CS further pointed out that procedures for developing a learning programme are deemed complex and decreasing the quality of lesson plans and teacher interventions.
“Assessment tools are unavailable in all the schools that were assessed,” the CS said as she noted the gaps that made proceeding with the roll-out impracticable.
