By Robert Nyagah
Embu County parents have appealed to school heads of primary schools to prepare a list of items required for Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) lessons early enough to avoid ambushing them later on.
The parents said teachers were making abrupt demands of various items forcing some pupils to miss lessons as the parents could not immediately provide the items.
They said that said the demand for items was frustrating because some of the items required at school could not be immediately acquired even from shops.
“Teachers ask pupils to bring items to school in the morning abruptly yet some of the items cannot be found in any shops or markets in the villages,” said one of the parents.
Another parent said that some items could be accessed easily while others were hard and expensive to get warning that there was need for the schools to prepare a list of what was required early enough to avoid frustrating both parents and pupils.
Parents suggested that the teachers should liaise with them in order to peruse the CBC syllabus beforehand to ensure that there was coordinated identification of needed teaching aids especially those that are to be bought.
They further protested that teachers were giving pupils complicated assignments which required application of technical skills some of which required seeking assistance from artisans like carpenters and that was quite a task for them.
Later on, they expressed appreciation for the CBC syllabus but felt that there were some gray areas which needed attention and improvement especially the practical areas where pupils are to gain technical skills.
