Survey: Teachers who had Attended CBC Workshops Require Fresh Training For Effective CBC Implementation
A survey has revealed that for every 10 teachers, 8 are yet to acquire the requisite qualifications for teaching the competency-based curriculum (CBC). This new revelation comes at the sunset of 8-4-4, With only a year to the complete phase out of 8-4-4 system in primary schools.
The Economic Survey 2021 released last week shows that 81.6 per cent, require a diploma to effectively implement the new curriculum.
Although the Education ministry has been offering short courses for selected teachers to help jumpstart CBC, now in Grade 5, the short courses do not replace the diploma requirement and therefore the teachers still need to go back to school.
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They will need to upgrade their qualifications through a one-year in-service programme at Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs)
“The school-based upgrading programme to benefit teachers in service will be available once the school calendar normalises (from 2023),” Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Jwan said while announcing the programme in July.
The economic survey revelations come amid national outrage on implementation for CBC, with parents raising concerns over mountains of homework for their children.
While many have questioned the rationale of the heavy workload and endless lists of learning materials, some have gone to the extent of questioning the competence of teachers implementing CBC.
“I have heard your cries of parents, guardians and teachers. The petition challenging CBC will be filed in Court next week. The education system in Kenya should not be an expensive, inefficient and ineffective experiment with our children and their future as is our leadership,” Law Society of Kenya president Nelson Havi tweeted on September 8.
MPs have also masked the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to issue clear guidelines to teachers and parents on how pupil assignments should be handled.
At present, only teachers from pre-primary 1 up to Grade 5 are teaching the CBC but it will be taught by all teachers once the last 8-4-4 class exits in 2023.
By the end of 2020 when the P1 training was phased out, the country had 21,632 diploma holders only teaching in its 23,246 primary schools and 17,930 others with a bachelor’s degree. Some 491 others had post-graduate qualifications.
The race to retrain teachers comes at a time when efforts to raise the entry qualification grades for teacher trainees has resulted in low enrolment in teacher training colleges (TTCs).
The entry requirement for the diploma of primary education and the ECDE programmes is Grade C (plain) in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination or its equivalent as certified by the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec).
Candidates for the two diploma courses are also required to have a C plain in all the cluster subjects – English and Kiswahili, mathematics, any humanities and any science subject.
For candidates with disabilities, the minimum entry grade is C (minus), with a C (minus) in the cluster subjects.
After the ministry and TSC revised the entry grades, more than 30 government-owned TTCs and 37 private ones have been left without students as only a few qualified.
Only five public TTCs enrolled an average of 20 students, down from the more than 200 they used to recruit each year.
The five colleges that got students are Thogoto TTC, Machakos TTC, Igoji TTC, Baringo TTC and Migori TTC.
TSC and MoE have also started an upgrading programme for P1 holders who are unemployed to attain diploma qualification. The training will take place at the TTCs.
There is an expected demand for secondary school teachers once CBC rolls out in secondary schools in January 2023.
TSC recently sent an advisory to the university on teacher training in new learning areas that current teachers are not skilled in.
Last month, the commission also reported that some subject combinations failed to attract any applicants during a recruitment exercise it carried out in July.
