The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) are putting the stakeholders on the spot after it emerged that some schools across the country continue condoning practices that are not in tandem with the Competency-Based Education (CBE).
Stakeholders, mainly parents and Education champions, have lamented that aspects of the 8-4-4 education system continue to be abated in many schools despite the paradigm shift in the country’s curriculum.
Contributing to a survey conducted by Education News on stakeholder perceptions towards CBE implementation in their schools, parents were quick to point out that most teachers instruct their learners to report to school as early as 6 a.m. The parents feel this is contrary to the MoE policy on school arrival.
“What does my Grade II son get to do in school at 6am when the home is barely a kilometre away?” posed Douglas, a parent from Shinyalu in western Kenya.
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“Elimu Kwa Maendeleo”, a lobby group member from Samburu, noted that teachers have not refrained from buying commercial assessment materials to test their learners. She further claimed that the practice contradicts the competencies of individual learners.
The group members castigated the practice as it encourages laziness among the tutors and fails to meet the CBE’s vision and mission. They called upon TSC and MoE to step up monitoring to salvage the Competency-Based assessment component of CBC.
Most parents in the Nyanza region mentioned the attribute of ranking learners at the end of the term. The parents claimed that during the CBE nationwide dialogue, they had been taught how summative and summative assessments are carried out in the new curriculum dispensation. However, most were shocked to see the ranking that characterised 8-4-4.
While responding to a question on the effectiveness of physical Education lessons, many teachers from Kiambu County in the central region agreed to use the time allocated to PE lessons to facilitate and compensate for the lost lessons. This not only goes against the CBE’s spirit of nurturing every learner’s potential but also highlights the fact that physical education lessons are not attended in most schools across the country.
The parents, for their part, were blamed for regularly demanding that their children repeat grades, especially when they didn’t meet expectations.
Despite being enlightened on how the competency-based assessment system discourages repetition, the parents always claim they have the final say in their children’s progression.
As the CBE rollout extends from junior to senior school, it is important for TSC and MoE to ensure that schools, as the central nerve of curriculum implementation, adhere to the CBE framework.
This can be best achieved through enhanced monitoring by the field officers, who will ensure that the desired curriculum outcomes are achieved.
By Naboth Murunga.
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