In Summary
Will there, or will there not, be a new education curriculum?
That was the question on the minds of Kenyans last evening as education
experts prepared to meet Wednesday at a special conference to determine,
among other things, the Ministry of Education’s preparedness to roll
out ambitious reforms in the sector.
There
were indications Tuesday that the launch of the new curriculum could be
pushed forward to next year to allow for, among others, training of all
teachers and printing of teaching materials.
Stakeholders
in the education sector have previously pointed out major gaps that
need to be closed before the new curriculum is implemented. Among them
are lack of training materials to guide the curriculum, failure to
involve all stakeholders, and failure to train teachers.
Wednesday's
National Steering Committee on Curriculum Reforms meeting, therefore,
comes amidst confusion in the education sector as to whether to stick to
the old curriculum or wait for direction on the new syllabus.
MATERIALS
And,
as schools re-opened Tuesday after a two-month break, parents and
teachers were conflicted on what materials to buy and what to prepare
for classwork.
At various bookshops in the country, parents
queued to buy textbooks and other learning materials for the current
curriculum, but said they feared a new directive from the ministry could
force them back to the shops in a matter of days, if not hours.
Education
Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i will chair this morning’s conference,
which will also be attended by officials from the Kenya Institute of
Curriculum Development (KICD) and Kenya National Union of Teachers
(Knut).
The 36-member National
Steering Committee on Curriculum Reforms was launched last year by Dr
Matiang’i to oversee and guide reforms in the sector, and yesterday KICD
director Julius Jwan told Nation that the institution will
present a report on the new, competency-based curriculum today before
the team reaches a final decision on its implementation.
PREPAREDNESS
“We
presented the report on our preparedness on the implementation of the
curriculum to the Ministry of Education,” said Dr Jwan, “and we shall be
presenting the same report during the meeting.”
The
planned roll-out of the new syllabus has been largely clouded in
uncertainty since the last quarter of 2017, even though the Ministry of
Education has spent a fortune readying its officers to oversee the
transition. More than 170,000 teachers were scheduled to be trained last
month in readiness for the launch this term. Those targeted for the
training were teachers handling pupils from nursery school to Standard
Three.
The proposed system will
replace the current 8-4-4 curriculum, introduced in schools in 1985. The
current system, whose fate could be sealed today, is based on eight
years of primary school, four years of secondary school, and four years
of university.
The new system, according to KICD, places more emphasis on continuous assessment tests (CATs) over one-off examinations.
KEEP RECORDS
Every
teacher is required to keep a record of each pupil’s performance and
skills as these will be used in the entire education lifetime — from
lower primary level through secondary school and university — to
determine the learner’s key competencies.
It
is expected to be rolled out in nursery school up to Standard Three
this year, Standard Four to Six in 2019, Standard Seven, Eight and Form
One in 2020. In 2021, the system will be extended to Form Two only, in
the following year it will cover Form Three, and in 2023 it will be
rolled out in Form Four.
The last
time Kenyan students are expected to sit the Kenya Certificate of
Secondary Education Examination (KCSE), according to KICD, is in 2025
through a careful phasing-out programme, after which the new system
takes over completely. Instead of the current Standard One to Form Four,
the new system will have Grade 1 to 12.
The
Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development says the syllabus was
developed by a team of experts that relied on a needs assessment study
conducted countrywide.
NEW DESIGN
The
study on early childhood development, primary and secondary education,
and special needs education was undertaken in January 2016, and the
findings were disseminated on March 30 the same year.
The
proposed Basic Education Curriculum Framework was presented to
stakeholders for adoption on January 30 last year, and this formed the
basis of the new curriculum design.
Soon
after, the KICD Course Panel and Academic Committee approved the
Pre-Primary 1 and 2, Grade 1, 2 and 3 that was used for the pilot
presided over by Dr Matiang’i on April 21 last year.
Dr
Jwan has previously said that the proposed curriculum is ambitious,
futuristic and in tune with global trends. Many countries, he says, have
adopted such a competency-based, learner-focussed approach as academics
move to make education more competitive globally.
But
Tuesday, Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion said, whether good or
needing some fine-tuning, the new curriculum should be postponed as
teachers are hardly prepared to implement it.
PILOTING
“We
will attend the meeting (Wednesday) and our message to the national
steering committee will be: ‘Let’s push the timelines,’” he said. “We
need to engage each other more and come up with a good curriculum that
will benefit our children.”
Mr
Sossion also cited failure by the Ministry of Education and KICD to
involve stakeholders and the public before the decision was made as one a
deterrent. Booksellers across the country have complained that they
were never informed in time and are making huge losses due to dead
stock.
The Knut secretary-general on Sunday told the Nation
that “the period of piloting was too short”. His concerns, and those of
hundreds of thousands of parents and their children in the country,
will be the focus in today’s special conference.
No comments :
Post a Comment