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Implement Magoha’s CBC task force report
What you need to know:
- The CBC implementation process has at times been chaotic as teachers, parents and learners fumble.
- Curiously, however, many parents and teachers complain that CBC is expensive yet the full cost of implementation of the CBC was not disclosed in the report.
- The President ought to be wary of populist knee-jerk reactions that would further jeopardise the lives of millions of Kenyan children.
Public discourse around the (un)suitability of the competency-based curriculum (CBC) has occupied the national space for some time.
But misgivings about its implementation linger five years down the line.
The process has at times been chaotic as teachers, parents and learners fumble. Bullish declarations by Education CS George Magoha that CBC “is here to stay” have not helped matters.
CBC was a campaign issue for President William Ruto and, at his inauguration, he promised to establish an education reform task force domiciled at the Presidency to collect views from ‘key players’ on its implementation.
That indicates the keen interest the President attaches to the reform process.
Much as the establishment of a task force is important, a similar one was belatedly appointed by Prof Magoha in 2019 and delivered a comprehensive report early last year.
The report has recommendations and useful data for the effective implementation of CBC that would benefit the new government.
However, the report has never been made public as only a few copies were printed.
The Education Ministry is yet to officially declare which of the proposals will be adopted or discarded.
Expensive
Curiously, however, many parents and teachers complain that CBC is expensive yet the full cost of implementation of the CBC was not disclosed in the report.
The President risks doing double work. He might appoint the same team that collected stakeholder views and data countrywide and so their report could be similar to the other one.
Besides, the stakeholders engaged by the earlier task force have not changed; neither have their views.
And given that Grade 6 learners will transit to junior secondary school in January and the task force is not yet in place, the quality of work of such magnitude done in three months would be doubtful.
The President ought to be wary of populist knee-jerk reactions that would further jeopardise the lives of millions of Kenyan children.
A keen study of the findings of the existing task force report would be a key starting point to avoid attempts at reinventing the wheel and only fix the gaps therein.
