Kenya: KNUT Calls for Suspension of CBC, Proposes 8-4-4 Modification

Students on a break (file photo).
4 November 2022

Homabay — The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Homa Bay branch has called for the suspension of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) to allow for public participation on its implementation.

"The CBC curriculum should not be scrapped but be suspended to enable the process that has begun of public participation to continue to its conclusive level to see whether the curriculum should continue or be scraped all together," said Patrick Were.

Were, a representative from KNUT said that the 8-4-4 system should rather be modified to suit the needs and emerging trends in the education sector.

"The outcome-based curriculum needs to be strengthened and modified to meet the needs and emerging trends in education going by the changes that are dynamic and taking place in Kenya today," he said.

He said secondary schools lack preparedness and the capacity to receive grade six learners at junior secondary because of inadequate infrastructure.

"The CBC classrooms that were built for them have been taken over by Form-one students in the 100-percent transition programme. This means they have no extra classrooms to house the incoming children," Were said.

He spoke during a stakeholder engagement forum on CBC implementation at Homa Bay Boys High School Thursday presided by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms to collect proposals from the members of the public regarding the curriculum.

During the meeting, various issues were raised among them, infrastructural capacity of secondary schools in accommodating junior secondary, preparedness of teachers to handle the incoming junior secondary students, training of CBC teachers, transition to junior secondary among others.

"The teachers at secondary level have not been adequately trained to unlearn the 8-4-4 system and learn and re-learn the CBC curriculum. This means the secondary schools have no preparedness to receive grade six and hence the need to domicile grade 7, 8 and 9 in primary schools where the teachers have trained though not adequately," said Were.

The chair of the forum, Prof Collins Odote who is also a member of the taskforce and the team leader for the Nyanza component of the consultations said the party was working on education reforms and added that there are several issues that have been raised by the public adding that the most highlighted was the issue of transition.

"There are several things people have raised especially on transition that kids should be domiciled in primary schools, issues of costs of o-level from ECD to university were raised, teachers welfare and preparedness,"Prof Odote stated.

Speaking at the event, CBC pupils said that the curriculum has a number of challenges including the grading system that is causing confusion to both the parents as well as themselves.

They echoed claims that their parents fail to understand the meaning and context of key words like M.E (Meets Expectation), E.E (Exceeds Expectation) and others.

The children recommended that the government should invest in infrastructure as well as employing more teachers for the success of the curriculum.

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