The Homa Bay county has demanded that CBC be suspended so that the general people may participate in its implementation.
The residents argued that rather than being abandoned entirely, the CBC curriculum should be put on hold to allow the public engagement process, which had already started, to reach a conclusion about whether the curriculum should be kept or abandoned entirely.
Were, a spokesperson from Knut, asserted that the 8-4-4 system should be altered to accommodate changing educational demands and fashions.
According to the current, dynamic changes in Kenya, the outcome-based curriculum “has to be strengthened and adapted to match the demands and developing trends in education,” he said.
Due to insufficient infrastructure, secondary schools, it was said, lack the capacity and readiness to accept students in Grade 6 in junior secondary.
“Form 1 students in the 100% transition program have taken over the CBC classrooms that were designed for them. This implies that they lack additional classroom space to accommodate the new students,” Were said.
At Homa Bay Boys High School on Thursday, he spoke at a stakeholder engagement conference on the implementation of CBC.
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms oversaw the gathering of suggestions for the curriculum from the general population.
During the conference, a number of concerns were brought up, including the ability of secondary schools’ infrastructure to support junior secondary, teachers’ readiness to deal with incoming junior secondary pupils, training for CBC teachers, and the transition to junior secondary, among others.
The secondary level teachers lack the necessary preparation to forget the 8-4-4 system and study and re-learn the CBC curriculum. Since the senior schools are not ready to handle Grade 6, grades 7, 8, and 9 must be housed in primary schools, where the instructors have received training but not enough, according to Were.
The task force member and team leader for the Nyanza component of the consultations and forum chairwoman Prof. Collins Odote said the party was working.
He claimed that while the public has brought up a number of topics, transition has received the greatest attention.
People have brought up a number of issues, including the transition of children into primary schools, the cost of O-levels from ECD to universities, teacher welfare, and teacher readiness, according to Prof. Odote.
Speaking at the occasion, students from CBC claimed the curriculum has a lot of issues, including a confusing grading system that affects both parents and students.
Among other important words, they claimed that some of their parents do comprehend the meaning and context of ME (Meets Expectation) and EE (Exceeds Expectation).
The forum asked the government to spend money on infrastructure and hire more instructors for the public schools.
