The examination must serve the curriculum, not the other way round

This may sound like an ordinary professional obligation. After all, teachers are expected to implement the curriculum. However, anyone familiar with Kenya's examination-oriented education system will appreciate the significance of this experience.

For years, national examination trends have greatly influenced classroom instruction. Teachers have often organised their teaching around what is likely to be examined, sometimes at the expense of broader curriculum expectations. The pressure to produce impressive examination results has, in many instances, reduced teaching to the preparation of candidates for particular examination papers.

Today, however, I find myself in a different situation.

We do not yet have established examination trends for the Kenya Certificate of Basic Education (KCBE). Consequently, I have had to pay closer attention to the curriculum designs, interpret the specific learning outcomes and develop learning experiences that enable learners to acquire the intended knowledge, skills, attitudes and values.

Interestingly, I am happy about this uncertainty!

One of the most encouraging changes I have experienced concerns the assessment of listening and speaking skills.

Previously, it was possible to assess these competencies largely through written questions. Learners could be asked to identify features of effective listening, explain conversational etiquette or describe appropriate responses in different communication situations without necessarily demonstrating the skills themselves.

Under the competency-based approach, I now find myself assessing listening by actually making learners listen and assessing speaking by providing opportunities for them to speak.

Learners listen to oral texts, interpret messages, participate in discussions, make presentations, respond to questions and demonstrate communication skills in authentic situations.

This is what language learning should look like.

The introduction of School-Based Assessments (SBAs) provides an important opportunity to strengthen this practice. When properly implemented, SBAs can enable teachers to assess competencies continuously, provide meaningful feedback and support learners in improving their performance.

More importantly, they can give practical language competencies the attention they deserve.

But what happens when KCBE examination trends emerge?

Despite my optimism, I have a growing concern.

What will happen when the first KCBE examinations are administered and teachers begin identifying patterns in English Paper 1 and Paper 2? Will we continue teaching according to the KICD curriculum designs, or will we gradually return to teaching examination papers?

My fear is that once examination trends become predictable, the focus may shift from developing language competencies to preparing learners for particular types of examination questions.

We may begin hearing familiar expressions such as "This is commonly tested in Paper 1" or "Concentrate on this because it frequently appears in Paper 2." Eventually, teaching English may once again become synonymous with teaching English Paper 1 and English Paper 2.

The curriculum designs could gradually lose their central place in instructional planning as teachers increasingly rely on examination analyses, revision materials and predictions of what KNEC is likely to test.

In effect, we may begin demanding what I would call "KNEC curriculum designs" rather than faithfully implementing the curriculum developed by KICD.

This would be a troubling development.

Competency-Based Education was introduced to move learning beyond the mere acquisition and reproduction of examinable knowledge. If national examinations eventually dictate what teachers teach, how they teach it and what they consider important, we risk reproducing the examination-oriented culture that CBE seeks to transform.

The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has a critical responsibility in safeguarding the intentions of the competency-based curriculum. National examinations are important for standardisation, certification and accountability. However, they cannot adequately capture every competency that learners are expected to develop.

In English, for instance, a written examination cannot fully establish whether a learner can listen attentively, participate meaningfully in a conversation, deliver an effective oral presentation or respond appropriately in real-life communication situations.

This is where School-Based Assessment becomes indispensable.

KNEC must therefore establish and sustain credible mechanisms that ensure SBAs are implemented seriously, consistently and authentically across schools.

Teachers should not regard SBAs as administrative exercises undertaken merely to satisfy assessment requirements. Neither should schools reduce them to the submission of marks without corresponding evidence of learning.

There must be effective quality assurance, moderation, teacher support and accountability.

Most importantly, school-based assessment must have sufficient credibility and significance within the overall assessment framework to encourage teachers and learners to take it seriously.

Otherwise, the pressure of national examinations may eventually overshadow the very competencies that SBAs are intended to assess.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) also has an important role to play.

Competency-Based Education places considerable demands on teachers. Effective implementation requires careful lesson preparation, learner-centred activities, continuous observation, assessment, feedback, remediation and documentation of learner progress.

These responsibilities require time.

A teacher handling an excessive workload may find it difficult to provide meaningful individualised feedback, conduct authentic assessments or adequately support learners with different abilities.

Under such circumstances, teachers may resort to the quickest methods of covering content and preparing learners for examinations. This would undermine the learner-centred philosophy of CBE.

TSC must therefore consider reasonable teaching workloads, manageable class sizes and adequate professional support as essential conditions for successful curriculum implementation.

We cannot demand authentic assessment and individualised learning while denying teachers the time and conditions necessary to deliver them.

The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development must equally confront an important implementation question: Is the scope of curriculum content realistic in relation to the time allocated for teaching and learning?

The competency-based approach requires learners to do more than acquire information. They must explore concepts, participate in activities, practise skills, collaborate, reflect and demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes. All these processes take time.

Where curriculum content is too extensive for the available contact hours, teachers face a difficult choice between covering the prescribed content and facilitating meaningful learning.

Unfortunately, pressure to complete the syllabus may encourage superficial coverage at the expense of competency development.

KICD should therefore continuously review the breadth and depth of curriculum content against the available instructional time, drawing on feedback from teachers who are implementing the designs in actual classrooms.

Curriculum coverage should never become more important than curriculum mastery.

The current transition presents Kenya with an important opportunity to redefine the relationship between curriculum, teaching and assessment.

For once, the absence of established national examination trends has encouraged some of us to engage more deeply with the curriculum designs and focus on the learning outcomes they prescribe.

This is a positive development that must not be lost.

However, sustaining it will require deliberate coordination among KICD, KNEC and TSC.

KICD must provide realistic and coherent curriculum designs. KNEC must develop assessment approaches that reinforce rather than distort curriculum intentions. TSC must create professional conditions that enable teachers to implement the curriculum effectively.

Teachers, too, must resist the temptation to reduce learning to examination preparation, even when national examination patterns become familiar.

The ultimate measure of successful Competency-Based Education should not simply be how well learners answer examination questions, but how effectively they demonstrate the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed in real-life situations.

If KCBE becomes the principal determinant of what happens in our classrooms, we shall have changed the curriculum without fundamentally changing our education culture.

The examination must serve the curriculum. The curriculum must never become a servant of the examination.