Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha says politicians suggesting that the Competency-Based Curriculum should be recalled after the general election are mistaken and ill-intentioned against the more than 6 million children under the system.
For weeks now Ford Kenya and ANC parties have proposed to scrap the system should the DP Ruto-led-Kenya Kwanza alliance win the presidential election in August.
Prof. Magoha has been inspecting the ongoing construction of new classrooms that should accommodate the first class of Junior Secondary in January 2023.
At the moment, the pioneer CBC class is in Grade Five and should transition to Grade Six in May of this year. That class should complete their primary education by December, meaning they will be joining junior secondary in January of 2023. At the same time, learners who will sit their KCPE in December 2022 will also transition to Form One in secondary schools.
Estimates show that the secondary school learner population will in January next year rise from 4.3 million to 6 million.
It is on this basis that the government has been putting up the additional classes. They are yet to be equipped with desks; with the accompanying infrastructure yet to be acquired.
The political class is now weighing in on what has become an extra load for parents, in meeting the needs of their children under the new curriculum.
“Tumeskia wazazi wanalalamika, tukiingia serikalini, tutabadilisha hii system,” said Moses Wetangula – Senator, Bungoma on February 6th.
The ANC Party led by Musalia Mudavadi has declared CBC will be scrapped, saying it was hurriedly implemented without wide and genuine consultations with stakeholders and that; the new system is a big burden and an academic frustration to Kenyan parents. But the CS will hear none of it.
“You can bark out there but you cannot take a Grade Six child back to Standard One to go prepare for KCPE. These children have gone through seven years of CBC since PP1… how do you think you can take them back? Which mother will allow you? Before we open our mouths, think first,” said Magoha.
