State agencies marred planned roll-out of new system, says report

Details are emerging of the intrigues that have threatened the roll-out of the new education curriculum next year despite heavy investment by stakeholders.

Infighting among those charged with delivering the new regime informed Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed’s conclusion that the country was not ready for the learner-centred Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), which has been fronted as a better alternative to the current exam-centred 8-4-4 system. She has now deferred it to 2020.

The ego wars between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) is captured in a report on CBC activities presented to the National Steering Committee in October.

The report concludes that, for the CBC to work, there must be active collaboration between the TSC, which is charged with facilitating training and providing classroom support, the KICD (meant to provide expertise), ministry directorates (which take care of resources and quality assurance) and the KNEC (assessing and feedback), which some senior officials at the ministry have hinted was lacking.

EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION

“ … however, this seemed not to have been working very well,” the report that was presented before the steering committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary reads. Among the recommendations contained in another report shared during the national steering committee meeting in January 3, 2018 was that TSC spearheads continuous teacher capacity development to support effective implementation of CBC.

On the other hand, Knec was to finalise the development of the Assessment framework for the CBC to enable parents and teachers appreciate the new way of assessing learners.

The 36-member committee headed by the CS has membership drawn from teachers’ unions, religious organisations, universities, researchers on education and technocrats in the education sector. Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion, who came out in strong support of the Cabinet Secretary’s position, sits in the committee.

POLICY REQUIREMENTS

The Committee has the final say in the curriculum development process. It provides guidance on policy requirements for the different levels of education relating to development, implementation and assessment of curricula for education and training.

It also coordinates the development of budgets and implementation frameworks for the reformed curriculum, apart from facilitating the design of effective frameworks for teacher orientation, in-servicing and monitoring and evaluation of the reformed curriculum.

There are concerns that the TSC and some of the Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAs) under the ministry of education wanted to take full charge of areas within the CBC that fall within their mandate, including budgets.

During training of teachers on the CBC and monitoring of the pilot countrywide, a number of officers from some of the key government departments could not participate in many occasions due to what was described as “being engaged elsewhere.”

NEW CURRICULUM

This is despite their participation being important as each is better-placed to explain what their institutions were doing to ensure that curriculum implementation runs smoothly.

There are also fears that the government is divided on whether the recommended change of education system from 8-4-4 to 2-6-3-3 would be interpreted as watering down one of the legacy left behind by the country’s second president Daniel Arap Moi. And perhaps to clear the perception, proponents of the new curriculum have been explaining that the new education system is an improvement of the previous one.

The 2012 Task Force on the re-alignment of the Education Sector to the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, popularly known as the Odhiambo Report, proposed a change in the structure to introduce technical, vocational, talent and general academic curriculum pathways in secondary education, to meet Vision 2030 human resource needs.

But, analysts say that, in stark contrast with former Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i who could push for what he believed in, the current CS Amina Mohamed is said to be more open to public views. This might have informed her decision to announce the need to put on hold the roll-out hoping that the process might attract significant support from all stakeholders, if its implementation is slowed down.

CHANGE OF MIND

“If properly implemented, it will give our children broad-based knowledge,” she said. On Tuesday, Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed told the Parliamentary Education Committee that lack of broad consultations, inadequate teacher preparedness and infrastructure was the reason for her change of mind.

She said that there is need to improve on teacher preparedness and sensitise parents on the nitty gritties of the CBC. These processes, though not satisfactory, have been going on, with the latest one being the Nation Leadership Forum at the University of Nairobi.

KICD had recommended that the training modules for teacher training institutions be reviewed to be in tandem with the requirements of the CBC. That means teachers joining colleges will be trained in line with the competency based curriculum and deliberate efforts must be made to bring up to speed, those already there.

RIGHT TRACK

Previously, the CS alongside the Principal Secretary Dr Belio Kipsang’, have assured Kenyans that the country was on the right track with the new curriculum, even as they appealed to the relevant officers to address emerging challenges.

But, the sudden change of heart by the CS caught many by surprise to an extent that even media houses interpreted the pronouncement differently.

The shocking message came days after the cabinet secretary had appointed an 8 member team to audit learning materials approved for the new curriculum.

The 30 days within which the team must operate expires in January. An external evaluation report meant to shed light on the viability of the CBC had also not been presented when the CS made the announcement.