By Education News Reporter
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Homa Bay branch has called for the suspension of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and instead modify the 8-4-4 system to suit the needs and emerging trends in the education sector.
“The outcome-based curriculum needs to be strengthened and modified to meet the needs and emerging trends in education going by the changes that are dynamic and taking place in Kenya today,” the branch Executive Secretary Patrick Were said.
Speaking during a stakeholder engagement forum on CBC implementation presided by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms at Homa Bay Boys High School, Were said that secondary schools lack preparedness and the capacity to receive grade six learners at junior secondary because of inadequate infrastructure.
“The CBC classrooms that were built for them have been taken over by Form One students in the 100 percent transition programme. This means they have no extra classrooms to house the incoming children,” he said.
The KNUT boss noted that the training of teachers on CBC and their preparedness to handle the incoming junior secondary students was wanting.
“The teachers at secondary level have not been adequately trained to unlearn the 8-4-4 system. This means the secondary schools have no preparedness to receive grade six and hence the need to domicile grade 7, 8 and 9 in primary schools where the teachers have trained though not adequately,” said Were.
The forum chair, Prof Collins Odote who is also a member of the taskforce stated that the most highlighted issue raised by the public was the issue of transition.
“There are several things people have raised especially on transition that learners should be domiciled in primary schools,” Prof Odote stated.
Speaking at the event, CBC pupils said that the curriculum has a number of challenges including the grading system that is causing confusion to both the parents as well as themselves.
They claimed that their parents fail to understand the meaning and context of key words like M.E (Meets Expectation), E.E (Exceeds Expectation), B.E (Below Expectation) and A.E (Approaching Expectation).
They recommended that the government should invest in infrastructure as well as employing more teachers for the success of the curriculum.
