Former Secretary General of Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Wilson Sossion has claimed that Competency Based Curriculum was hurriedly implemented.
He said the new curriculum was not designed by professionals and has no proper structure.
“What we have under implementation is not CBC. There has never been CBC in our classrooms and teachers are not teaching CBC,” Sossion said.
“They had raised concerns that the trainers could not interpret the CBC designs and the quality was low”
Wilson Sossion
Sossion said a curriculum that is not accepted by parents and cannot be implemented by teachers is a wrong one.
Roll Out
He said the curriculum rolled out in 2017 was not put under proper scrutiny by both professionals, teachers and parents.
Sossion said when teachers raised concerns about the training in 2019, some were interdicted.
“They had raised concerns that the trainers could not interpret the CBC designs and the quality was low,” he added.
He said upon the roll out, the country was not ready and to mount CBC, it needed more time.
Way Forward
His sentiments come after President William Ruto pledged to appoint a taskforce to look into the curriculum.
He noted that the taskforce review team will give an opportunity for re-evaluation of the education system.
“We reconfigure our system to match with our national development plan to produce competitive human resources,” he added.
Sossion however acknowledged the strong knowledge based system saying it is better retained.
“There will be a robust public participation to review the curriculum, content of the curriculum and the education structure,”
Wilson Sossion
He further stated, “The value based education will be integrated in the review and we will have a better model of education, the taskforce will identify issues and provide solutions.”
The lawmaker said the debate between 8-4-4 and CBC should be thrown out and the existing system reviewed through robust public participation.
“There will be a robust public participation to review the curriculum, content of the curriculum and the education structure,” he said.
This way, Sossion said, they will strengthen the knowledge based system and integrate the competencies required.