If you have an interest in our education, then you already understand the tits and bits of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), especially when it comes to the learning outcomes of a learner. With an expected CBC citizenry in a few years to come, we can only hope for palpable change, as promised by CBC. It’s also very interesting to watch the gradual changes, as the curriculum takes shape and twirls the way things are done in every educational institution. Some will be radical and some moderate for years to come.
If the recommendations available in the public domain are anything to go by, then it’s time for work and a lot of more work, to avoid the Junior Secondary School (JSS) situation we experienced the other day, when it was decided that JSS would be domiciled in primary schools. If the said recommendations by the Presidential Working Party will be adopted, then the following changes will occur, touching on all institutions and giving a new direction to our education sector.
According to a report seen by Citizen and also captured on their Citizen digital platform, the working party is said to recommend these changes; lowering of entry grades for teachers joining teachers’ college from C+ to C, and C- for teachers in marginalized areas. TSC to employ ECDE teachers and not the Counties. It also recommends a review of admission rules for teachers, an increase in university fees from 16,000 to 52,000, university Councils to be responsible for appointing top university management, universities limited from offering Certificates and Diploma courses, a reduction in the number of government-sponsored students, university education curriculum be aligned with the CBC. Scrapping of the categorization of secondary schools from National, Extra County, County, and Sub-County schools to each categorized in line with the career pathways of learners, establishment of more learning institutions in both wards and constituency level, removal of compulsory subjects to align subjects with career choices, Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) will be renamed the Kenya National Assessment Council (KNAC), boards on bursaries and scholarships be collapsed into one, KICD to rationalize the system’s number of learning areas, and more.
With a promise to implement a CBC in phases to allow a smooth transition and to continuously fix emerging issues, keeping in mind the challenges that have been recorded so far in its implementation, like lack of clear educational policies for effective implementation of the CBC, lack of validity and reliability of learner’s scores as it is a new curriculum, inadequate ICT infrastructure for learning and teaching of CBC, high cost of curriculum implementation, inadequately trained teachers to handle the curriculum, not forgetting the negative attitude from parents and guardians, all stakeholders need to come together and ensure a smooth transition of CBC in all levels.
For the transition to happen and smoothly so, a few things need to happen and keep happening. First, the implementers must always ensure there is a buy-in from all the education stakeholders in every step of implementation. To achieve that, and going forward, the implementers need to always carry out civic engagements with as many stakeholders as possible, consult widely, and ensure everyone understands why the proposed changes need to take effect. Considering resistance to change on any new venture/innovation, and that educational changes worldwide are believed to be political to an extent, explaining why there will always, more often than mentioned, evoke an uproar. And to imagine CBC began on such a bad footing with almost all stakeholders, the implementers must be ready to engage and assure the Country why CBC, and why now, for its implementation to work.
The implementers must also create coordinated efforts in policy-making to give clarity on teacher roles and performance, to negate the kind of standoff we saw when the roles and structure confusion in administration almost ruined the JSS experience. This process is believed to help teachers own the curriculum and the systemic change as implementers, hence mitigating curriculum outcomes failure then, and in the future.
And finally, the implementers need to create and allow the provision of stages of concern throughout all implementation stages. These stages will create a space where every question and fear from all stakeholders is addressed before embarking on to the next stage. These concerns might mostly come from teachers as implementers of the curriculum. Failure to do this, the issues may escalate and cause more harm later on, in the implementation process.
For us, the education enthusiasts, and with our deep interest in the implementation of this new curriculum, we will follow to learn, assist, and cheer on every effort to make this curriculum work, for the benefit of our nation. It’s what we do best.
