Much remains to be done to instil public confidence in the CBC model

Education CS George Magoha when he commissioned a CBC classroom at Nakuru Girls high school in Nakuru Girls on May 16, 2022. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Like a broken-down vehicle hobbled by a host of mechanical problems, the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) is moving in fits and starts, putting a huge damper on public trust and confidence in it.

Official public statements from Jogoo House on the Government’s capacity and level of preparedness to carry the transition from 8-4-4 to 2-6-6-3 to term, paint a rosy picture of organisational acumen and managerial acuity. Teacher training is galloping apace, construction of new classes is going on furiously, books and other teaching and learning materials are all ready and it’s all systems go.

Yet, with six months to go before the first cohort of learners joins junior secondary school, this glossy picture is beginning to assume a jaded and vapid look, capable of engendering national panic.

To be fair, the Government has put in some infrastructural spadework to ease the changeover but it is incremental, slow and sometimes indecisive.

According to the CBC Implementation Report by a task force formed by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha to advise the Government on the CBC rollout, 1,250,649 learners will join junior secondary school at Grade 7 together with 1,320,395 others enrolling in Form One under the 8-4-4.  This means a total of 2,571,044 new learners will troop to secondary school at the same time, representing a 27 per cent learner population increase in secondary school from 4,381,701 to 6,029,168 in 2023 alone.

To prepare for this eventuality, the Government is building 10,000 new classrooms in secondary schools and slightly more than 6,000 are complete. According to Prof Magoha, some primary schools have been identified to host junior secondary school learners though details of which particular schools these are have been scanty. Still, Prof Magoha is encouraging some private schools to join in the expansion campaign by building more classes.

While this is a fair effort by the Government, the fact that secondary schools (especially boarding) are already suffering severe congestion as a result of the 100 per cent transition makes this school expansion effort appear like small potatoes. Even assuming the 10,000 classes were adequate, is the same expansion going on for toilets, dormitories, kitchens and dining halls, laboratories, libraries etc? On the infrastructure front, the schools are simply not ready for a population boom.

Besides the congestion, schools have for the last five years or so been grappling with an enduring teacher shortage that has obviously had a negative impact on school programmes and learning outcomes. According to data from the Teachers Service Commission, the basic education sector has a shortfall of 103,000 teachers. And even if the commission has been rallying to close this gap, more teachers are leaving the service for greener pastures and natural attrition than it can replace.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the existing teaching force is having to take on extra work burdens to cater for the shortfalls and keep the schools running. If true, then a good number of teachers could be suffering from stress, burnout and dampened spirits, a tragic atmosphere in which to produce reasonable learning outcomes.

 The examination system also poses more questions than answers. According to the Kenya National Examinations Council, learners will sit a school-based formative test worth 60 per cent marks at the end of Grade 4, 5 and 6 and another summative one worth a maximum of 40 marks at the end of Grade 6. However, it is not clear how the results will be used to determine who goes to which category of schools.

 And still, because these formative tests will be conducted during the learning process by individual teachers, how will the exams council ensure integrity and accuracy of results. By and large, a teacher’s performance is usually pegged on learning outcomes and it will therefore be natural for them to be inclined to inflate the scores for an impressive if false picture of the learning outcomes. Private schools could be notorious in this for the sole purpose of raising the profiles of their institutions and consequently push up demand for enrolment.

The Government must address these issues in order create public confidence in the CBC through increased awareness.

 If it does not, the country will see more parents enrolling their children in international schools engendering inequality in the education system.

Magoha has declared that he will be done with public service when this administration’s term comes to an end in August, he must make it reasonably easy for his successor to continue with the implementation by addressing these issues. He may yet do this before his call of duty ends but he doesn’t have much time.

The writer is a consulting editor