The placement of learners in diverse senior schools is testimony enough to prove that teachers have done their job well, contrary to the negative notion that was held by many.
Teachers have played a crucial role, even under challenging conditions, to ensure that learners have achieved their rightful placement in Senior school.
The most determining factor for proper placement in a particular career pathway is the cumulative learner’s general performance in assessments at the Junior level.
Proper identification of a career pathway for a student requires careful thought, sound strategic planning, and extensive engagement of all stakeholders.
The systems have been so low-demanding that a lot more, and occasionally, would only allow the registration of two students on a night.
The learner should not fully expect the parent to come up with a suitable career pathway; instead, they should endeavour to champion the process and even own it.
On their part, parents should step up their efforts by carefully studying their children’s performance from all the rudimentary stages, so that they can make very informed choices.
Most parents have failed to understand the benefits, challenges, and opportunities that come with competency-based education and are either unaware of the harsh truth or completely uninformed.
All stakeholders, including parents who disregard professional counsel and choose to proceed, must prepare for the consequences of their actions.
Many learners have to internalise and fully understand all the basic career planning steps so that they can make good choices, since all the competence-based education syllabi are spiral right from the rudimentary stages to the very advanced levels of learning.
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It’s with this in mind that some heads of institutions have organised sensitisation platforms for all parents and learners, so that all the critical demands can be demystified.
Competency-Based Education (CBE) represents a complete paradigm shift from the well-known traditional, examination, and summative learning focus to a new system that embraces personal skills, competencies, and even personalised learning pathways.
Teachers have a great deal of work on their side, ranging from duties and responsibilities, which can make them completely overwhelmed and may not have the time, or even the tools, to guide learners effectively through the desired pathways.
Despite having limited resources, the government must train teachers well so that they can help learners identify proper pathways that align with their competencies, potential, and interests.
The fact that a particular learner has the potential for a specific area of study does not expressly determine the interest or competency of an individual learner.
All learners must be fully equipped with the requisite knowledge to overcome the current and future academic career challenges.
While acknowledging the challenges, we should, in the first place, recognise success, which will inspire hope. Continuous criticism, however, will completely demoralise and leave a dark cloud over the entire system, eventually harming our children and the competency-based education as a whole.
Succinctly, while it’s worth analysing, critiquing, and even examining competency-based education with its notable shortcomings, it’s a mistake to propose relevant practical solutions that could address the current and future challenges instead of condemning it in total.
By Hillary Muhalya
Muhalya is a long-serving teacher based in the North-Rift
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