Team to review CBC should fix concerns

The surest way to secure a country’s future is to ensure that its youth get a solid education to equip them with the knowledge and skills required to contribute to socio-economic development.

This explains the huge allocation of resources to the education sector right from pre-primary to university.

What drives education reform is the need to make learning relevant to the country’s human resource needs.

Since independence, there have been several important reforms.

The 8-4-4 system, which was tailored to fill the gaps in the old 7-4-2-3 curriculum, was introduced in the mid-1980s.

It was, however, later found to have had major shortcomings. Its review is what paved the way for the introduction of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) that is underway.

There have been mixed reactions to the new system. While Grade 6 learners will transit to junior secondary school in January, there are some lingering queries on its viability.

Of concern to some is the apparent hurry to implement the new curriculum. The majority of teachers appear not well-equipped with the knowledge and skills to handle the CBC, which is deemed to be tedious and expensive.

There has also been some apprehension and lack of support from parents, five years down the line.

Outgoing Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has, however, remained upbeat, assuring all that the money used to build CBC classrooms was well spent.

It was not surprising that CBC became an election campaign issue, with some allies of President William Ruto vowing to push for its scrapping.

Education team

But, as he promised during his inauguration, President Ruto has appointed a task force to collect views from key stakeholders on its implementation.

He has picked an education team to review the CBC. The 44-member task force will also look into basic, technical and university education.

Chaired by a top educationist, Prof Raphael Munavu, its distinguished members, include globally feted science teacher Peter Mokaya Tabichi. The team is expected to complete its work in six months. 

Naturally, this means that the current CBC plans should continue. Curriculum change is a technical, political and sensitive matter that must be meticulously handled for the benefit of the learners and other key stakeholders, including their teachers and parents.