Parents Association: Yes, CBC has issues, but don't abolish it just yet

The National Parents Association (NPA) has lauded the move by President William Ruto to form a taskforce to look into the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

The association admitted that the system which will replace 8-4-4 faced some challenges which need to be addressed before it was fully implemented.

In the last couple of weeks, stakeholders have raised concern over the 1.2million students who are transiting from Grade Six to junior secondary against limited classrooms.

Secretary General of the Association, Eskimos Kobia said the taskforce would come in handy in identifying and seeking solutions to the challenges. Kobia, identified the issues of junior secondary schools and classrooms as one of the major challenges that were yet to be fully addressed.

"We welcome the move by the President to form a taskforce to look into the Competency-Based Curriculum and we are asking that parents should be included in this team," he said.

Kobia, was, however quick to warn over quick changes noting that a lot of man-hours and resources had been put in place in implementing CBC.

Kobia noted that many schools had benefited from two or three classrooms adding that this was not adequate due to the high number of students leaving Grade six. He gave an example of Mirera High school in Naivasha, which had one of the largest numbers of students in Nakuru County.

"This school has over 1,000 students and it's expected to welcome Form One students and tens of others under CBC come January yet it has only two new classrooms," he said.

James Muiruri from Elimu Bora foundation said that close to 3 million students would be joining both secondary and junior secondary schools next year.

He termed this as a major crisis mainly for stand-alone secondary schools which would be hosting thousands of students in the junior schools.

"In January, 1.6 million students will be joining Form One under the 8-4-4 system while another 1.2 million will be joining the same schools under CBC," he said.

Educationist Richard Nyayal said that even though CBC is not being implemented correctly, it should be corrected and not abolished.

"A lot of time, effort, sacrifice, and funds have gone towards this project. A solution should be found in regards to the double transition of grade six students and class eight candidates," he said.