As the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) and the transition of learners into senior secondary pathways continue, concerns about funding, infrastructure, and teacher preparedness remain at the centre of debate.
Education stakeholders are increasingly warning that without addressing these structural challenges, the country risks undermining progress made in expanding access to learning.
Speaking on Spice FM, former Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion said the education sector must focus on building a robust quality assurance framework to support the new system.
“We must insist on quality assessment and a strong quality assurance framework. That system should give the country proper feedback so that we are able to quickly identify gaps and seal them,” Sossion said.
His remarks come at a time when the Ministry of Education has acknowledged a Sh66 billion funding gap in the basic education sector.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok recently warned that chronic underfunding and delayed capitation are pushing many public schools to the brink, leaving administrators struggling to maintain operations and raising fears that millions of learners could be affected.
Sossion said the issue largely lies in the budget implementation process rather than a lack of commitment to education.
“It is the duty of Parliament to ensure that what is budgeted for is delivered to education,” he said.
He noted that Kenya already allocates a significant portion of its resources to education, nearly six percent of GDP which aligns with international recommendations.
However, Sossion said Kenya must standardize learning conditions across the country to ensure equity.
“We need uniform standards so that a school in Kiharu looks like another school in Turkana. We must elevate the quality of our classrooms and build a qualitative ecosystem that can compete globally,” he said.
Sossion argued that the rollout of the CBC system exposed gaps that were not adequately addressed during planning.
“We must tell the country honestly that we introduced an education system that the country was not prepared for. You cannot roll out a completely new curriculum without preparing the human resources and investing in the necessary infrastructure,” he said.
According to Sossion, research evidence had earlier highlighted two major challenges: teacher preparedness and infrastructure investment, but these warnings were not sufficiently acted upon at the time.
“We launched a new curriculum, but it would appear that the drafters were not proactive enough to put in place the required infrastructure,” he said.
The transition of learners into Grade 10 under the CBC pathways has also raised concerns about the preparedness of schools and teachers.
With the introduction of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) pathways, he stressed the need for properly equipped laboratories and modern teaching facilities.
“STEM schools with the new pathways require adequate laboratories and learning tools. We must invest heavily to support this shift,” he added.