Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development CEO Prof Charles Ong’ondo at KEPSA Inaugural Annual SME Conference, Awards and Exhibition in Nairobi on August 23, 2024.
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has sounded a warning to publishers of encyclopedias for schools and called for limited use of revision books in an attempt to lessen the burden on learners.
Prof Charles Ong’ondo, the CEO of the institute, has said that the encyclopedias, which are popular in schools, do not add value to the progress of learners and place an unnecessary burden on them and their parents. He said that KICD will not allow use of materials not approved by the institute and warned publishers of such books.
“What they call encyclopedias are not encyclopedias because they pack every aspect of every learning area together and call them encyclopedias. This is not necessary because the learners have already experienced these areas in the various learning activities. It is plagiarism and they should be removed from schools,” Prof Ong’ondo told Nation.Africa.
“We’ve made a decision at KICD that we’ll not approve a revision book for Grade 1, 2 and 3. We’ll approve for pre-primary education, for upper primary, junior and senior school because this was being misused by publishers,” he said.
Prof Ong’ondo said that learning materials from outside the country will also be subjected to vetting by the institute to align them the values of the national curriculum.
He further clarified that compilation of examination papers, which are also in the market, are not usually approved by the government. However, he encouraged the use of approved revision and reference books.
“We’re aware that a lot of materials that are not approved find their way, especially to private schools. Encyclopedias aren’t approved by KICD. The publishers who will go ahead to produce these encyclopedias for use in schools will not be eligible henceforth for tenders to supply government books. If we come to a school and find that you [a school] have materials not approved, we will revisit your registration status. A circular to that effect will be issued soon,” said Prof Ong’ondo when he addressed a conference of the Kenya Private Schools Association.
“If teachers feel they need more than one textbook, feel free to buy. But why do we tell parents to buy five books (on the same subject)? They can buy more reference or complimentary books for use by the teacher and learners,” he said.
Prof Ong’ondo added that learning materials that are developed outside of the country will be vetted before approval for use in Kenyan schools and that the responsibility of cracking down on rogue publishers and schools lies with the Directorate of Quality
Assurance and Standards and the audit function at the Ministry of Education.
On the commercial examinations, Prof Ong’ondo said that they go against the spirit of the competency-based curriculum (CBC) which discourages heavy intensity of examinations and assessment.
“Assessment should be assessment as learning to enhance the learning experience and assessment for learning. It’s not necessary at all to buy materials packaged by people who have no interest in the curriculum,” he said.
The KICD boss allayed fears of delays in distributing textbooks for use by Grade 9 learners. He said that successful publishers have already been awarded the contracts to supply and that the distribution exercise will be launched on October 22 2024.
“We prioritised the correction of Grade 9 materials and are confident that all the books will be in schools by December 15 2024 before schools open in January 2025,” he told Nation Africa.
Prof Ong’ondo admitted that the implementation of the CBC faces different challenges in both primary and public schools.
“We still have challenges in the implementation of the CBC but private schools have led the way. A number of private schools are doing what we expect and a bit more.”
He commended private schools for putting up the correct infrastructure for CBC and interpretation that CBC should be experiential and requires learners to have practical experiences.
“Many have got the pedagogy right but public schools are better in the usage of local resources like clay and waste paper, bringing down the cost of education. CBC is not expensive, ask parents for reasonable resources,” Prof Ong’ondo said.
Prof Ong’ondo also commended public schools for giving appropriate homework to learners unlike private schools that he said overburden learners with extra work. He observed that as a result, parents have resorted to buying school items their children are expected to make, thereby not learning the intended skills.
