Boycott new curriculum training, Sossion tells teachers

Teachers union boss Wilson Sossion has asked tutors to boycott training on the new competency-based curriculum, saying it is bound to fail.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) secretary-general said for the curriculum to succeed, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) needs to employ at least three teachers to man each classroom and reduce the number of pupils attending a class at any given time to 28.

Addressing teachers during the Nyambene Knut annual general meeting at Maua Methodist Nursing School in Meru county, Mr Sossion said the country also needed to increase TSC budget allocation to ensure the new curriculum success.

Mr Sossion repeated his claim made earlier in the week that many teachers in public schools do not understand the new programme. 

“They are saying that teachers were trained, yet the outcome is indicating that even the trainers don’t even understand the framework of competency-based curriculum. It means that money has been wasted,” he said.

He accused the government of being in a rush to change the 8-4-4 system, a curriculum he claimed was piloted for four years.

Nyambene’s Knut executive secretary Julius Taitumu and his Meru South counterpart Njeru Mutani claimed the government has been reluctant to concede defeat since it invested a lot of money in the new system.

“That is why they are reluctant to stop the programme since they have made some financial commitment. We cannot experiment with our children. Don’t go for any training in the month of April, switch off your phones and go on holiday,” Mr Sossion told the teachers.