The appointment of a Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms to review the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) and undertake other wide-ranging transformations is a key milestone in revitalising the sector.
Precisely, it offers a fresh opportunity for a critical evaluation and interrogation of the CBC and to seek a new direction that would make it work as envisaged.
In itself, appointing the commission was a climb down from the previous hawkish and uninformed fulminations against the education system by Kenya Kwanza Alliance during the elections campaigns.
It is a realisation that education issues are sacred and require sober conversation, not political noises on the rostrums.
At the core is the question: is CBC moving in the right direction? Are there inherent issues that require urgent resolution?
Teachers’ unions have consistently complained about poor preparation of their members to implement the curriculum.
Their argument is that whereas the government rolled out several programmes to “retool” the teachers, the learning outputs were minimal.
And this is understandable. Most of the sessions were rushed, the trainers themselves were not properly prepared and the training content was not comprehensively developed.
At the intellectual level, arguments abound on teacher training with the contention that qualified professionals, those who went through pre-service teacher education – degree, diploma or certificate level – and mastered appropriate pedagogical competencies, are suitably equipped to handle any curriculum and only require a refresher training to do so.
However, that is contestable. CBC has fundamental philosophical, structural and pedagogical underpinnings which require deep immersion of the teachers.
Fundamental to this is pedagogical and a complete mind shift from traditional teacher-centred learning to child-centred learning that prioritises flexibility and active learner participation.
The second issue is the assessment of learners and in particular finding the perfect blend of the dichotomous between formative and summative evaluations.
CBC prioritises formative evaluation that is continuous and based at the classroom and school level as opposed to a one-off summative test that pushes learners to cram, recalling and depositing answers in what a renowned education scholar, Gerard Bennaars, formerly of Kenyatta University, equated to ATM banking.
For CBC, the question is whether teachers and schools are properly prepared to conduct the formative assessment and deliver standardised results that can be used for the transition and placement of learners at the Junior Secondary School.
Consequent to this is the transition and placement of learners from primary to junior secondary school.
Two issues have been canvassed here. First, junior secondary education has been domiciled in secondary education for the reason that the competencies to be acquired at that level are better handled in high school.
A counterargument, however, is that the learners transitioning from Grade Six in primary to Grade Seven in junior school are underage, 12-13 years, and therefore, emotionally and physically not ready for high school education and especially when they have to relocate from home to boarding schools.
The second subject of conversation is the criteria for placement of Grade Six candidates in junior secondary school. Unlike the current practice where placement is based on performance at KCPE exams, under CBC, Grade Six candidates will sit the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) which accounts for 40 per cent of the marks while 60 is obtained from school-based assessments at Grades Four, Five and Six.
Paradoxically, the principle behind CBC was to lower costs by emphasising the utilisation of locally available materials. But this seems not to have worked.
Whatever the case, any education system is costly and the real challenge is that the government’s investment in the provision of learning and teaching resources is minimal.
Largely, the education budget goes to paying teachers’ salaries and leaves little for learning infrastructure and resources. Remissions for free primary and subsidised secondary education are inadequate and irregular.
All these are weighty issues that the public has been grappling with and which the education commission has to tackle.
However, answers are available. The Taskforce on Enhancing Access, Relevance, Transition, Equity and Quality for Effective Curriculum Reforms was chaired by Prof Fatuma Chege and took nearly two years to collect and collate views from the public ably teased out these issues and provided a clear roadmap on tackling them.
The task force reviewed and synthesised recommendations of all the previous education committees from the Simeon Ominde Commission of 1964 to the Douglas Odhiambo Taskforce of 2012 and made critical recommendations.
First, Covid-19 which led to a 10-month closure of schools and a subsequent rush to make up for lost time through a compressed school calendar.
Second, the heated political campaigns in the countdown to the elections in August crowded out vital government plans.
Put together, the issue is not a lack of information or direction on education reforms.
Neither are the challenges insurmountable. Heavy lifting has been done and the new commission is better off studying and internalising the recommendations and the implementation schedule contained in the Fatuma Chege Taskforce Report.
CBC is the most appropriate educational approach for a country transitioning from an industrial to a post-industrial and knowledge-based economy.
Its philosophical orientation is sound with an emphasis on flexible learning that is practical and sensitive to social and cultural environments.
