- Grade 10 School-Based Assessment projects require adequate resources, staffing and teacher support rather than being treated as a mere paperwork exercise.
- MoE, TSC and school administrators should ensure teachers have sufficient time, materials and facilities to properly guide learners through project work.
- The true measure of the Grade 10 projects lies not in completion, but in what learners actually learn through the process of doing them.
As a teacher in Senior School, I have been watching the implementation of Grade 10 School-Based Assessment with particular interest. The projects, in particular, have caught my attention because they bring out something that has often been missing in our classrooms: the learner doing, not just listening.
For many years, education has been heavily associated with books, notes and examinations. A learner who could remember and reproduce what the teacher had taught was considered successful. The Competency-Based Curriculum is asking us to look at learning differently. The Grade 10 projects provide a good opportunity to see whether we are ready for that change.
These are not activities that learners should simply complete for marks. They are meant to involve learners in discovering, communicating, collaborating, creating, solving problems and applying what they learn. In other words, they allow the learner to demonstrate competence rather than merely describe it on paper. This is why the role of the teacher is equally changing. The teacher becomes a facilitator and guide, instead of doing everything for the learner, creating an environment in which learners can ask questions, investigate, make mistakes, try again and eventually come up with solutions. The teacher observes, gives direction and assesses the learner’s progress.
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That is not an easy responsibility. A teacher handling a large class cannot effectively supervise meaningful projects if there are inadequate staff, limited materials and little time. This is where the government and the Teachers Service Commission must come in. The success of competency-based assessment cannot be left to the goodwill of individual teachers. Schools need adequate human resources, laboratories, workshops, ICT facilities, learning materials and other resources depending on the nature of the projects. Where possible, schools should encourage learners to use locally available materials and improvise, but improvisation should complement proper investment, not replace it.
The Ministry of Education therefore needs to look beyond the policy documents and ask what is happening in actual classrooms. Can the school afford the materials required? Does the teacher have enough time to guide the learners? Are there enough teachers to supervise the work? Do learners have access to the facilities they need? These questions matter because a good project on paper can fail when implementation conditions are poor.
School administrators have a significant role to play. They must make project work part of the school’s academic culture rather than treating it as an additional burden. They should plan for the activities, mobilise resources, support teachers and monitor progress without turning the process into another paperwork exercise. Parents and communities also need to understand the purpose of these projects. A learner should not arrive at school with a beautifully completed project that was actually produced by a parent, private tutor or someone hired to do the work.
The real value is in the process. A learner who struggles to find information, works with colleagues, makes a presentation, receives criticism and improves an idea is learning valuable lessons. Such experiences build confidence and independence, qualities that cannot always be captured by a written examination.
KNEC deserves credit for providing a structured approach to competency-based assessment. The project requirements give schools a framework within which learners can demonstrate what they can do. The responsibility now is to ensure that the framework is properly implemented at school level. As Dr David Njeng’ere, a key figure in the development of Kenya’s competency-based assessment approach, has consistently emphasised through the reform process, assessment must help us understand what a learner can actually do, rather than simply what the learner can recall. That is the promise of these projects.
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But we should not deceive ourselves. CBC will not succeed simply because we have introduced new assessment tools. It will succeed when the conditions necessary for their implementation are put in place. The teacher must be prepared and supported. The learner must be allowed to participate. The administrator must provide leadership. TSC must ensure adequate staffing. The Ministry must provide resources and policy support. Parents must appreciate that learning is no longer confined to completing exercises in an exercise book.
There will certainly be challenges as the country adjusts to the new system, and we should acknowledge them honestly. But we should also be careful not to dismiss every new idea simply because implementation is difficult. The Grade 10 projects could become one of the strongest features of CBC if we get them right. They can help learners discover their abilities, work with others, think independently and develop solutions to problems around them. They can also help teachers see learners beyond examination scores.
The opportunity is before us. What we need now is not merely to ask whether learners have completed their projects. We should ask whether they learnt anything from doing them. That is where the real test of CBC lies. Let us invest in the projects, support the teachers and give our learners room to learn by doing.
By Astiba Kebong’o
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