By Robert Nyagah
Despite widespread dissatisfaction with the way teachers managed Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) learners’ homework, equipment and roles they assigned parents, book publishers have emphasized the importance of parents’ involvement to make sure the new curriculum succeeds.
Led by the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) Chairman and East African Educational Publishers (EAEP) CEO Kiarie Kamau, publishers said parents’ involvement would help them understand and appreciate the academic and technical strengths of their children apart from any prevailing weaknesses.
He added that involvement of parents and guardians in aiding children during homework or with required materials is not a new thing.
However, under CBC, discontent has been growing across the Country that the demands were sometimes overwhelming due to heavy loads of homework and expensive learning materials.
The greatest bone of contention on the parents is what they term as their over involvement in the children’s assignments apart from demands for what they termed as expensive and sometimes unavailable materials for practical classes.
Issues have also emerged on availability of basic Information Technology (IT) equipment such as smart phones capable of taking photos and printing machines especially in rural areas.
Kiarie added that teachers needed to be oriented more on the basics of the CBC to ensure that they stopped demanding for expensive learning materials from learners but improvise materials from cheaply available resources in their localities.
“There is need to have more structured and intensive training of teachers to enable them use of locally available resources in teaching,” suggested Mr. Kiarie.
