Kenya’s Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) is here to stay, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has ruled with a dose of confidence and likely arrogance, possibly browbeating people with contrary opinion.
“We have no apologies to make to anybody. CBC is here to stay. It is the most transformative thing I have seen,” Prof Magoha declared, challenging reviewers and complainants to table facts, but immediately dismissed such thought, claiming “you don’t have any”.
Why is the professor ruling out discussions and saying he won’t lobby for the programme, a “presidential legacy project”, to be frustrated? On education matters, one of the constant changes is dialogue, which only needs to be guided and timed.
As a matter of fact, this is the right time to confront the emerging issues of the programme, without attempting to bar people from questioning the nuts and bolts. What’s more, the Kenyan Constitution allows public participation.
The CBC plan, now at Grade 5 of its implementation, was launched in 2018 and was designed to get the best from every Kenyan learner from pre-school to university.
According to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) chief executive Charles Ong’ondo, the outgoing 8-4-4 system of education was designed to “enable learners to be self-reliant” but didn’t achieve much because it focused on summative examinations.
Among the many complaints is that the CBC programme is too costly to the parent and learner since it is time-consuming and was likely to widen the gap between the rich and poor, the latter struggling to get materials.
However, Prof Ong’ondo says no parent or guardian should do the homework for the learner, but should report the assignment challenges to the teacher, either in person or through the parents association.
This is the kind of dialogue that will continue to shape the CBC reviews along the way since they should be done every five years.
It would be erroneous for Prof Magoha to frustrate dialogue or feedback. Just like CBC is fashioned to appreciate different abilities, the minister must also allow Kenyans, be they parents or independent reviewers, to assess the education system according to their abilities.
On this, no view should be dismissed as inferior in the search for a more compact economy where people have different abilities.
Instead of trying to respond to every view, Prof Magoha should seek expert guidance from agencies like the KICD, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the Kenya National Examination Council, and the department implementing the curriculum reforms.
At this time, these agencies are expected to be listening carefully to the public reviews and sifting the thoughts to firm up the system.
Kenya’s CBC is replacing the 8-4-4 system that curriculum analysts say was watered down by limited funding and examinations, probably denying Kenya its innovative brains.
With the arrival of the CBC plan, Kenya has a chance to partly recover the lost chances in 8-4-4 and the Ministry of Education had better listen more to reviewers, be they experts or casual observers, the latter carrying a huge fraction of parents who claim homework demands were straining them.
For a new programme, when key stakeholders such as parents raise issues, they should be listened to, encouraged to speak up, their thoughts incorporated and be guided on how to look at the whole scenario differently.
While it may not be right to demand dropping CBC, the Ministry of Education must be careful how it midwifes the implementation.
Among other things, the CBC train seems to be in the hands of right captains where key departments and roles are held by seasoned educationists, among them Julius Jwan, Fatuma Chege, Sara Ruto, Prof Ong’ondo, and David Njeng’ere.
