Costly CBC school demands shock Grade Four parents

Parents are coming to terms with the high cost of the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) after schools opened this week with the first lot of pupils transitioning to Grade Four.

A spot check revealed that most parents in low-income brackets were not fully prepared to meet the full financial cost of keeping their children in Grade Four under the new education system that emphasises on practical skills rather than theory.

A parent at Moi Forces Academy in Nairobi, who asked not to be named, said he had spent Sh4,000 on books and learning materials for the term already.

“We hear that the government has delivered textbooks to the school, but we have been told to buy certain books so we are lost,” he says, noting that parents are directed to purchase the items from specific outlets.

Irene Chepkoech Ndima, a parent in Uasin Gishu, said enrolling her child for CBC had left a ‘serious’ dent on her family’s finances.

She said aside from buying an assessment book at Sh300, parents were required to buy pupil’s files at around Sh80, a luminous paper that costs around Sh100 a piece and moulding clay, which costs about Sh300.

At Westlands Primary School, parents whose children are proceeding to Grade Four are required to buy 17 exercise books, Kiswahili dictionary (kamusi), a Bible, an English dictionary, hymn book, geometrical set, ruler, pencil, pen, and three rolls of tissue.

Gladys Osuru, a small-scale maize farmer in Kitale, said her child who was supposed to join Grade Four had not reported to school by yesterday because she has not bought the extra learning materials.

“The school won’t allow my child in class until he is equipped with the materials, including manilla paper, luminous paper and the likes,” said the mother of four.

Yesterday, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development maintained that it was not aware of the extra materials being demanded by the learning institutions.

“In the curriculum design and handbooks distributed to schools, the learning institutions were not told to ask parents to buy anything for implementation of CBC,” said chief executive Julius Jwan.

He said the plan under the CBC is that teachers use what is readily available in the environment to enhance learning.

Dr Jwan said the government provides capitation to public schools to buy stationery, which should cater for the additional learning materials.

“We thus do not understand who is telling parents to buy these things,” he said.