By Norah Musega
The Senator for Migori County Hon. Dr. Ochilo Ayako has termed the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) an expensive program following an outcry by parents on the high coasts they have to incur in school projects.
Speaking to Education News in Migori over the weekend, the senator said the narrative of free primary and secondary education is no longer a reality and that this will greatly affect learners from poor families. He then urged the government to take up necessary precautions on its implementation.
“The need to have free primary and secondary education is to provide equal opportunities to all children across the country despite economic challenges to easily access education which is an equalizer. What the Education CS is doing is not fair and correct to parents and learners especially those from humble families as they will be left out in some of the tests,” said Ochilo.
He noted that parents have a lot of burden brought by CBC yet the rights of the school going children dictate the need for free education. He urged the CS to understand the adverse effect of Covid-19 pandemic on the economy and that most parents lost their jobs.
His sentiments were also echoed by Nyatike Member of Parliament Tom Mboya Odege who warned the Ministry of Education against implementing the CBC saying the government is not ready.
The Nyatike legislator called on Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha to think through the new system wisely before its implementation saying failure to do that regions like nyatike will be left out in the new system
Odege noted that the burden of developing most schools has been left to Members of Parliament through the National Government Community Development Fund (NG-CDF) despite limited financing by the national government.
“What we are getting at Nyatike Constituency is not more than Sh50 million and with over 200 schools to develop. We have been struggling to ensure that we develop the school but even if you device the amount we receive to 200 schools, none will even be able to receive Sh500,000 and thus no proper input in infrastructural development can be achieved.” Said Odege.
He told the Education News that he opted to prioritize the schools in phases to be able to impact the education sector positively but still insists that they are not well equipped to implement the new system of education and thus children from the region will be affected as they shall be left behind.
“I urge the government not to forcefully push the CBC system down our throats before they avail adequate resources necessary for its implementation to all the schools so as not to leave part of the country lagging behind. The new curriculum is more effective in town schools with adequate resources such as those in private schools and more developed regions to proceed with ease yet this will cause inequity in the education sector not necessary for development of this nation,” noted Odege.
“We cannot have a country not developing uniformly and therefore the government must sit and discuss this new system of education (CBC) and its implementation promptly before rather than rushing and forcing it on teachers, learners and parents without proper resource distribution necessary for its implementation in all the schools across the country,” he added.
Nyatike MP said the system will be more effective even if it takes 10 years but with proper laid down procedure and well equipped teachers and schools.
“The government is broke and not ready to implement CBC. Sh1 billion for training teachers is not adequate, neither is Sh4.6 billion for infrastructure development. We must address certain issues first such as employment of more teachers to implement this,” concluded the MP.
