Questions linger on new school curriculum
What you need to know:
- The success or failure of the curriculum will depend heavily on the implementers on the ground; the teachers.
The Education ministry has been training teachers despite opposition by Knut.
There is, however, a bigger question about whether KICD will develop a curriculum tailor-made for the new system for student teachers in the training colleges.
It is not viable to continue training teachers using an old curriculum and then train them again for CBC.
The implementation of the competency-based curriculum (CBC) has been rocked by controversy and confusion since it was announced.
In December last year, then Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed threw stakeholders into a spin over the curriculum. She told the Senate Committee on Education that its rollout would be shelved until January 2020, citing unpreparedness at the ministry. Within a few days, she changed tune and announced that the curriculum would be rolled out in 2019, after all.
Delicate operation
When President Uhuru Kenyatta effected some changes in the Executive earlier in the year, Ms Mohamed was moved to the Sports ministry.
Then entered Prof George Magoha, the surgeon, fresh from resuscitating the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec), where he served as chairman. He is now expected to manage the delicate operation of birthing Kenya a new curriculum embedded in a new 2-6-6-3 system.
He has vowed to ensure the curriculum is fully implemented and warned that anyone who stands in its way will be swept aside. Kenya National Union of Teachers, which had strongly opposed it, is already showing willingness to support it. Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers is already on board. Secondary school heads have also voiced support for CBC.
Pupils in Grade 1,2 and 3 are already using the curriculum. However, there are some grey areas around its implementation.
Will there be exams or not?
The soon-to-be-phased-out 8-4-4 system has been criticised for being too examination-oriented. This has, in turn, been blamed for the cut-throat competition that has given rise to cheating in examinations, rote learning and drilling in order to pass at the expense of learning.
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) Needs Assessment Primary Level Report, which preceded the formulation of the Basic Education Framework, observed that “alternative assessment is needed for both summative and formative assessment to support the new way of learning, since competencies cannot be effectively measured with multiple choice or paper-and-pencil tests”.
How will the assessment be done and when? From the framework, there is a formative national assessment at the end of Grade 3. This begs the question if there will be a national examination like students and teachers are used to, and how it will support the 100 per cent transition policy.
Knec CEO Mercy Karogo has announced that the assessment of Grade 3 learners will be between September 16 and 20 this year. It will be called the Kenya Early Years Assessment.
“The guidelines, instructions and assessment tools to be used by schools to assess competency levels among Grade 3 learners have been developed,” she said.
The assessment will be done in English, mathematics and integrated learning areas (all the other areas combined) and will not be used for selection in the transition to Grade 4.
Lower secondary question
The basic education framework has a formative and national assessment at Grade 6, after which the graduates join Lower Secondary (Grade 7, 8 and 9). The assessment framework for this level has not yet been developed as there are major policy issues to be decided concerning it.
Centres of excellence
The last stage of basic education is senior secondary school, which the KICD hopes will produce empowered, engaged and ethical citizens. This will be after going through their chosen career paths in senior school from the three that the curriculum offers. These are: Arts and Sports Science, Social Sciences or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Stem). Each of the pathways will have various subjects.
All this sounds great until you delve into how it will be done, especially for the students who take the Stem pathway. Senior schools are expected to make informed decisions based on the requisite infrastructure available. This will definitely trigger movement across schools as students seek to study in schools that support their ambitions. How will the government manage this?
Teacher training
The success or failure of the curriculum will depend heavily on the implementers on the ground; the teachers. The Education ministry has been training teachers despite opposition by Knut. There is, however, a bigger question about whether KICD will develop a curriculum tailor-made for the new system for student teachers in the training colleges. It is not viable to continue training teachers using an old curriculum and then train them again for CBC.
All eyes will be on the various stakeholders at the end of 2028 when the pioneer CBC class will exit senior school. Will they be empowered, engaged and ethical citizens?
