The Ministry of Education, through the State Department of Basic Education, held a dialogue on Education Quality and the Progress of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) Implementation. The forum brought together education stakeholders to assess the curriculum’s progress, address challenges, and explore ways to enhance its implementation.
This dialogue comes as the ministry prepares for the transition of the first cohort from junior secondary school to senior school.
The event for Kirinyaga County held at St Faustina Kerugoya Girls High School, provided the ministry with a platform to explain different key education reforms by the Kenya Institution of Curriculum Development (KICD) and Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), transition guidelines, teacher management and capacity building, and emerging issues in the basic education sector.
Ann Ngatia, CBC assessment coordinator, singled out the challenges in the portals and stressed that the ministry is doing everything possible to address the issues.
However, she pointed out that the school administrators often wait until the last minute to upload the required data, which causes the system to become overloaded.
She encouraged administrators to provide feedback on system issues, which would be valuable in improving future designs.
“Remember, this is the first time we have designed the portal for Grade 9. So, whatever challenges arise, it’s important to note that we’re dealing with much traffic—1.3 million learners—and a significant amount of detail being requested.
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Therefore, you must let us know what’s not working if you’re facing major challenges. While we may address issues on our end, we also need feedback from the schools’ interface to make necessary adjustments to the platform,” said Ngatia.
Samuel Kiogora, from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), said the understaffing in junior secondary schools (JSS) is due to budgetary challenges, admitting that TSC has the correct data on teachers required per county and will recruit on available resources.
Mwangi Kanaiyu, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Chairperson for Kirinyaga County, emphasized that the immediate concern is preparing for the progression from grade 9 to senior school Grade 10.
He particularly highlighted the shortage of qualified teachers in JSS and the issue of teachers who are not CBC-compliant.
“We have agreed that there is a need to do urgent retooling so that we bring teachers who are employed on board to continue with the CBC the way it is supposed to be,” said Kanaiyu.
Kanaiyu also urged the TSC to review the promotion policy to ensure that teachers do not remain stagnant in one job group for extended periods, as this would motivate them.
By Jane Mugambi
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