Governors raise concern over new syllabus

The rollout of the new curriculum faces more hurdles after the Council of Governors (Cog) said it does not have money to support the programme.

Council chairman Josephat Nanok said in a statement Tuesday that the government has not provided funds to meet the costs of the competency-based curriculum.

“County governments were neither provided with unit cost of implementing the curriculum per child nor with estimated costs of every mandatory component of the syllabus,” Mr Nanok said.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

He added that the rollout of the curriculum at county level may have serious financial implications that are not manageable within the 2018-2020 medium term expenditure budgets.

The Turkana County boss called for talks with the government on how to fill the financial gaps that would come with the rollout of the curriculum.

“County governments allocate about 3.5 per cent of their budget share to education every year,” Mr Nanok said.

He added that since 2016, devolved governments have worked closely with the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in the design and ultimate launch of the curriculum.

“County governments have used their budgets to finance the curriculum pilot, including in-service training of early childhood development education teachers, strengthening quality assurance and providing of learning resources. These costs must be factored in the county government resource allocation,” Mr Nanok said.

In the past two weeks, he said, the council has keenly followed the decisions and announcements the ministry made with regards to the national roll-out of the syllabus.

ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

“Recalling that pre-primary education is a function of county governments … the Council of Governors affirms that the county government is a critical stakeholder in matters of pre-primary education, including the decisions regarding the roll-out of the curriculum and in the development of an enabling environment for its successful implementation,” he said.

Any decisions on the schedule and scope of the syllabus’ roll-out to pre-primary level has a direct financial effect on counties, the Cog Chairperson said.

“To this end, the Council of Governors urges the Ministry of Education to engage county governments to ensure decisions are reached through mutual consultations,” the statement added.

On Saturday, Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said the curriculum would be rolled out next month and not 2020.

Ms Mohamed said the ministry would start a methodical and careful organised phased roll-out of the curriculum in pre-primary I and II and Grades 1, 2 and 3.