Hidden curriculum: Why it could address the criticism aimed at CBC

Pupils from Maweni primary school in Mombasa practising at Nyali Golf and County Club in Mombasa. Fourteen pupils at Maweni Primary School have decided to take the bull by the horns to prove golf is no longer a man's rich sport. March 13, 2021. [Ernest Ndunda, Standard]

If nothing else, the rollout of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) has succeeded in making us as a country have a real conversation on education. For once, we have addressed educational matters with pretty much the same verve we approach our partisan politics. The discourse has also exposed whiners and thinkers amongst us. Realists and idealists, pessimists and optimists. But that is the richness of life.

You probably have heard a lot of jargon thrown around by talking heads and panelists; some so abstract you could not wrap your head around them. One such term I am sure is 'hidden curriculum’.

In modern education parlance, hidden curriculum has become a buzzword of sorts. But what, exactly, does it mean, and where does it fit in teaching and learning?