Economy

Return to 8-4-4 as new primary school curriculum suspended

AMINA

Education secretary Amina Mohamed. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The new early primary school syllabus has been suspended indefinitely in a shocking move that throws into crisis the learning programme for more than five million pupils — from nursery to Class Three.

Education secretary Amina Mohamed Tuesday told the Senate Education Committee that the new syllabus, dubbed Competence Based Curriculum (CBS) that was introduced this year from nursery to Class Three on pilot, will not be rolled out next year.

Ms Mohamed linked the move to inadequate preparedness and insufficient training of teachers, arguing that so far 79,000 teachers in 1,168 zones across the country have been trained. Kenya has more than 240,000 teachers.

The U-turn means that schools will now revert to the 8-4-4 system introduced in 1984 and which was meant to be replaced with the 2-6-3-3-3 system which emphasised more training on practical skills.

The U-turn is a blow to parents and schools that had bought materials like books for the start of the new term in January.

“The worst thing that can happen is for us to roll out something that we are not all comfortable with, especially parents because these are their children who are being introduced to a new curriculum. A little discomfort is acceptable but huge discomfort is unacceptable,” Ms Amina said.

“I can tell you that we are not ready to roll out the curriculum across the country. It is in our plan that the curriculum will be introduced in teachers training colleges so that those coming out are well trained on the new curriculum,” she added.

"Was the programme rushed? and what was the internal evaluation saying about the roll out to the curriculum?” posed Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni.

Accompanied by PS Belio Kipsang and the Director of Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, Julius Jwan, Ms Amina lauded the new curriculum but said implementation must be well thought out.

Dr Kipsang told the committee chaired by Uasin Gishu Senator Margaret Kamar that the pupils under the pilot programme will proceed to the next grade where they will be taught using the 8-4-4 syllabus.

“Technically nobody is going to Class Four on this curriculum because what we were doing was just piloting in Class One and Two and Three so there should be no big problem,” Dr Kipsang said.

The PS said the Education docket faces a myriad challenges, especially teacher shortage. He said that thre are 34,000 teachers in primary and 87,000 in secondary schools.

Kisii Senator Sam Ongeri said implementation of the new curriculum cannot be discussed in a boardroom and called for comprehensive dialogue.