Universities in Kenya risk being caught unprepared for the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) unless they institute urgent reforms to align their academic programmes in preparation to receive the pioneer learners who will join university in 2029.

The warning has been given by the chair of the Commission for University Education, Prof Chacha Nyaigotti, who challenged universities to “put their act together” so that they are not caught by surprise by the change.

“Universities should package themselves to be able to roll out the CBC,” said Prof Nyaigotti.

He was speaking while leading segment discussions during the Inter University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) conference on Thursday last week at the United States International University - Africa (USIU-A).

His observations were echoed by the cabinet secretary for East African Community and Regional Development, Adan Mohamed, who is also the chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers. He said that universities must embrace CBC in their programmes.

Academic-based learning

“We must shift academic-based learning to skills-based learning to address socio-economic challenges of our countries. This is the only way we are going to become self-reliant, reduce unemployment, foster student and labour mobility in the region and harness our resources for the good of our people,” Mr Mohamed in a speech read on his behalf by chief administrative secretary, Ken Oburu.

The theme of the conference was: “Competency-Based Education: Implications for the Future of Higher Education in the East African Community” and brought together vice chancellors, education ministers, and curriculum developers from the East Africa Community.

While delivering his keynote speech, the CEO of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), Prof Charles Ong’ondo, observed that universities must urgently organise their schools and departments and re-orient their curricula to CBC.

“If universities do not start working on their programmes early enough, there will be a tsunami because the CBC learner will come in with a new dispassion for learning, and therefore universities must start reorienting their lecturers into the new pedagogical approaches,” he said.

Under CBC, learners in senior secondary school will choose their preferred pathways out of the three on offer. These include Arts and Sports Science, Social Sciences and Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It is expected that 60 percent of the learners will pursue STEM, 25 percent social sciences while 15 per cent will go for arts and sports.

Prof Ong’ondo noted that the students who will choose STEM will join universities with new demand for resources.

Unemployment

The IUCEA executive secretary, Prof Gaspard Banyankimbona, said there are growing concerns about the high rate of unemployment among university graduates in the region, the quality of learning, reputation, relevance of courses and preparedness of students for the labour market.

Globally, universities are facing competition from technology-driven platforms such as EdX, Coursera, and other similar platforms as alternative forms of education.

“A paradigm shift is paramount and inevitable because traditionally, competency-based education was considered relevant and fit for technical and vocational education and training in order to produce middle-cadre technical graduates needed by the productive sector, whereas universities are expected to produce graduates imparted with new frontiers of knowledge and learning outcomes that would make them upon graduation occupy managerial positions in the production sector,” he said.

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