GOOD NEWS For Students!! NEW System Would Not Take Off In January

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed ignored a report prepared for her by technical officers on the country’s preparedness for the rollout of the new curriculum when she declared before the Senate committee on education that the new system would not take off in January.

The report, which was submitted to the committee chaired by Uasin Gishu Senator Margaret Kamar on Tuesday, indicated that the country was fully prepared for the new curriculum.

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However, Ms Mohamed, despite having the document, said that the country was not ready for the new curriculum to the dismay of officers who had accompanied her.

They included Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang and Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) chief executive Julius Jwan, among others.

For teaching materials, she had indicated that 219 titles or textbooks had been evaluated and approved for early learning education (pre-primary, Grade 1 to Grade 3).

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She also indicated that the ministry had mounted training for teachers in the early years in 1,168 education zones. An education zone is made up of 20 primary schools.

The report by her also stated that 71 master trainers, 507 trainers of trainers, 3,360 regional trainers, 96,522 primary school teachers and 79,760 pre-primary teachers had been trained.

“However, it is worth noting that the training of teachers under the CBC is a continuous process and the next phase of early year’s teachers training is scheduled from December 17 to December 21 in all the education zones of the country,” she said in the report.

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She added the existing facilities in the schools would be used for the implementation of the CBC in early years education, noting that additional facilities will be required for grades 7 to 12 with the introduction of pathways.

However, it’s the disclosure by Ms Mohamed while answering questions from senators that the country was unprepared that has left confusion in the education sector, with a national steering committee meeting which was to be held yesterday postponed.

Yesterday, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) secretary-general Wilson Sossion, while addressing the union’s 61st annual meeting, told delegates the government should start the process afresh.

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It is believed Ms Mohamed, while making her conclusion, used information in a preliminary report of external evaluators, which pointed at various gaps in the new curriculum.

She is expected from Monday to receive the final report from the external evaluators.

It also proposes development of a national competency framework for all learning areas, adoption of innovative competency approaches already tried and tested in literacy and numeracy globally, among others.

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It also wants a relook at the curriculum areas, their discipline foundations, justifications and financial, human resource and pedagogical implications.

“Finalise and publish curriculum reform policy into a Parliamentary Act. Create a National Secretariat for the rollout of the competency-based curriculum if the evaluation team asserts that it’s viable. Factor the reform process in the medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) for budgetary considerations,” the report recommends.

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In October this year, KICD in its internal evaluation of the new curriculum identified several gaps: teachers struggling with the concept and lacking the capacity demanded by the new curriculum.

It also emerged that schools did not have learning materials for the rollout despite having piloted the curriculum for two years.

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