No final exams for Grade Six pupils, Uhuru says

Primary school learners will not sit national examinations that determine transition to secondary school under the new curriculum that is currently being implemented in pre-school and Grades One to Three, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced Friday.

Effectively, the current Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination will end in 2023 when those currently in Standard Four reach Standard Eight.

At the same time, President Kenyatta declared that Grades Seven to Nine will become part of secondary education.

They will constitute Junior Secondary School while Grades 10-12 will be Senior Secondary and prepare students for university and tertiary education.

This puts to rest questions over the structure of the new curriculum and transition from primary to secondary school levels.

"New curriculum task force recommended that the learners in Grade Six should not sit for national examinations, allowing a 100 per cent transition to lower secondary," said President Kenyatta.

CRITICAL THINKING

He was addressing the Third National Conference on Curriculum Reforms at Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi.

Under the new curriculum, learners will be tested at the school level under what is known as formative assessment, but with guidelines provided by the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec).

The assessments are intended to determine the learners’ mastery of concepts but differ significantly where tests are meant for grading and placement.

The whole objective is to de-emphasise examinations and prioritise acquisition of knowledge, skills and other competencies such as critical thinking, creativity and values.

The curriculum’s focus is developing learners’ abilities and talents.

A few months ago, Knec had announced that assessments would be administered to Grade Three learners, which triggered questions about how such learners could be tested.

It has since been clarified that those assessments are not examinations in the traditional sense.

SUPPORT CBC

Addressing the conference, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha declared that the ministry is committed to implementing the new curriculum and was ready to tackle challenges as they come.

“We promise to deliver the curriculum and ensure it succeeds,” he said. “We are ready to face the challenges but ensure our children get quality education.”

Already, Prof Magoha has set up a task force chaired by Prof Fatma Chege, who is also the deputy vice-chancellor of Kenyatta University.

Among others, the task force is to advise on policy and legal issues necessary in the implementation of the curriculum.

It is also to advise on the transition of Grade Six learners to lower secondary.

President Kenyatta asked stakeholders and Kenyans to support the CBC. "These reforms are necessary if we have to ensure quality education that makes learners competitive in the global workspace," he said.

“I recognise that its implementation will pose some challenges, but I seek your support to build CBC and make it work," he added.

He asked teachers to champion the curriculum reforms and help hopeless children to regain hope, have a bright future and get jobs.

PRODUCTIVITY

President Kenyatta said the government is committed to implementation of the curriculum and asked for stakeholders support.

He said the CBC will help train and impart knowledge that children can take advantage of to become positive contributors to themselves and society.

“Let us not be dampened by challenges but rather be inspired by them and even work to beat them,” he said.

Mr Kenyatta asked education stakeholders to stop the push and pull over the new curriculum and instead continue dialoguing.

“Problems will be there, but it’s our commitment to fix and face up to them, not the recognition of the challenge. It's better to have a child learn under a tree than walk the streets of Nairobi with glue bottles beneath their noses,” he said.

“We have given the children the necessary tools to be conquerors, masters of their own destiny and nurture their talents.”

TEACHER TRAINING

The conference brought together top government officials and education stakeholders, among them university scholars, religious leaders, development agencies and civil society.

It was attended by several Cabinet secretaries, including Dr Fred Matiang’i, who is in charge of Interior but previously headed Education, and is credited with rolling out the new curriculum.

Prof Magoha said, so far, the Education ministry had engaged various stakeholders and is confident that the project will succeed.

“My orders from you (President) were very clear; to put CBC in a proper trajectory and we have done a lot, right from public participation to this point,” he said.

Teachers Service Commission chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said they have trained more than 100,000 in Grades One to Three.

She said another 100,000 teachers would start training next week.

To address an acute shortage of teachers, Ms Macharia said, the commission would spend Sh2.5 billion to recruit 5,000 teachers.

An additional Sh1 billion will be spent to recruit intern teachers.