By Amoto Ndiewo
As the government nears completion of the 10,000 Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) classrooms, a number of Garissa education stakeholders have expressed concern that the number is too low to accommodate students joining Junior Secondary (JSS) and those leaving Standard 8 for Form One.
According to politician Umulkheir Harun, close to 3 million students will be joining both secondary and junior secondary in January.
While speaking to Education News, she termed this as a major crisis mainly for stand–alone secondary schools which will be hosting thousands of students in JSS.
“In January, 1.6 million students will be joining Form One under the 8-4-4 system while another 1.25 million will be joining the same schools under the CBC. The 10,000 classrooms being constructed are a drop in the ocean,” she said.
She added: “We support the on-going programme to change the school curriculum but there are so many challenges that the government has pushed under the carpet.”
KNUT Garissa Executive Abdirizak Hussein echoed the sentiments and added that many schools had benefited with only two or three classrooms including Garissa High School which has one the largest enrollments in entire North Eastern region.
“This school has 1,483 students and is expected to welcome both Form One students of 8-4-4 and CBC students of JSS in January yet it has only two classrooms. Interestingly, the 8-4-4 students expected in Form One next January are expected to do a 100 per cent transition to secondary school,” he said.
Hussein further lamented that the construction cost of CBC classrooms set to Ksh.788,000 per unit by the government was too low.
An official in the directorate of Garissa County of Education who disclosed his name admitted that the issue of cost per classroom had been raised and had been addressed by the Ministry.
He added the CBC classrooms allocated to Garissa County had been completed in the first phase, despite an outcry over the construction cost.
“Currently the construction of the second phase is at an advanced phase and we expect them to be ready on time to accommodate the students from Grade Six,” he said.
Meanwhile, a teacher at Garissa High School who had undergone the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) junior secondary training pointed out that his school had only 12 trained CBC teachers out of 75.
“With such a deficit in CBC yet the government has invested billions in the system, it remains to be seen how everything will pan out given that some private North Eastern schools have neither CBC classes nor trained teachers,” he said.
