The government is considering classifying senior secondary schools based on courses they will offer under the new curriculum, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has said.

Prof Magoha hinted yesterday that some national schools may be picked to exclusively offer three main courses covering Humanities and Arts, Sports Science as well as Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), since they are already well established and have better infrastructure.

Senior Secondary Schools under the new curriculum will cover Grades 10 to 12.

“We are going into a new system where at Senior Secondary, we will be having pathways for three years.

Read also:

Secondary School teachers To Be Trained on junior secondary

List Of Schools That Will Host Junior Secondary Schools Per County Under CBC

New: Lists Of December 2021 TSC Promoted Teachers Per County

Primary school teachers Want TSC To Allow Them Teach Junior Secondary

KNUT Regrets Signing New Recognition Agreement, Wants Junior Secondary Schools In Primary Schools

There are those very well established institutions that we might suggest will have the three pathways.

Others with two pathways will be mainly day and smaller boarding schools,” said Magoha.

Speaking in Nyeri the CS said schools would be classified based on their ability to provide the STEM courses.

“Perhaps schools with three pathways can be classified as national. In order to do so, you must have very good facilities in the likes of Kenya High, Kapsabet, Alliance Boys and Girls,” Magoha explained.

He continued: “I will not be there but as a professor I have to reason. But there will be a dichotomy where there are those schools allowing two pathways and those with three.”

A CBC taskforce report stated that the proposals are that 60 per cent of learners at Senior Secondary will pursue four tracks in the STEM pathways.

Remaining 25 per cent of learners will pursue Languages and Social Sciences while 15 per cent will be in the Sports Science, Performing and Visual Arts.

Placement to Senior Secondary will be based on formative and summative assessments in Junior Secondary and learners career choices.

All the current 10,359 secondary schools will host both Junior and Senior Secondary levels.

Ministry will identify schools that can host the three main courses progressively and enhance their infrastructural capacity.

CBC group will transition to Senior Secondary in 2026 and due to the increase in the number of learners, schools will require additional infrastructure and human resource.

“Given the projections, the existing 10,359 secondary schools will require at least two additional classrooms to absorb those learners in 2026.

However, the government will have to establish more secondary schools in regions where there are shortages of institutions,” states the CBC taskforce report.

Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development will be expected to implement a career guidance programme to prepare learners for choice of pathways and tracks in Senior Secondary.

At the same time, the existing 35 Special Needs Education secondary schools can be designated to cater for both Junior and Secondary for tracks respective learners with special needs can pursue in the three pathways.

The teachers’ service commission has identified key learning areas that it recommends universities and colleges to introduce in their teacher training in preparation for the rollout of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in junior and senior school.

In an advisory to the Ministry of Education, the CEO of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Dr Nancy Macharia said the alignment of the training programmes by universities and private colleges is intended to equip teachers with requisite skills, in line with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Basic Education Framework.

“The purpose of this letter is to submit the commission’s advisory on teacher preparation and requirements to facilitate a smooth implementation of junior and senior school curriculum delivery,” said Dr Macharia in a letter dated July 30 addressed to the principal secretary for the State Department for University Education and Research, Simon Nabukwesi.

It is copied to the PS for Implementation of Curriculum, Prof Fatuma Chege, the CEO of the Commission for University Education, Prof Mwenda Ntarangwi, and vice chancellors of universities that train teachers.

According to the TSC, the new learning areas that universities need to give special attention include pre-technical and pre-vocational education, life skills, agriculture and health education.

Optional subjects include indigenous languages, Kenya Sign Language, visual arts, and performing arts. It further identifies various subjects where skills gaps exist, such as leatherwork, Mandarin, woodwork technology, plumbing and ceramics.

Read also:

Secondary school teachers to teach three teaching subjects

All In service Teachers and Unemployed Teachers To Pursue A mandatory Post Training Certificate

Updated: Lists Of TSC Promoted Teachers 2021 Per County

Universities Oppose TSC’s Move To Scrap Education Degree and To Send In-service Teachers Back To Class

TSC Proposes Scrapping Of Bachelor Of Education Degree

Proposed New Entry Qualifications for teacher education For CBC

Over Enroll Students At Your Own Risk: MOE Warns School Heads

MP Tells Teachers To Consider In-service Training To Fit Under CBC

To implement the teaching of some of the learning areas, there is a need to retool teachers in home science and biology to facilitate learning in health education, social studies to include content on citizenship and sports and physical education to include the aspect of sports and health introduced in the learning areas, added Dr Macharia.

“We advise and recommend that the teacher education curriculum should be flexible and aligned to enable one to teach and instruct a variety of subjects,” she said.

This is a departure from the current practice where secondary teacher trainees specialise in only two teaching subjects.

The commission has not yet begun training secondary school teachers in service for the CBC despite the fact that the pioneer class, now in Grade Five will be moving to Grade Seven (the first junior secondary school class) in January 2023. It is expected that more teachers will be required in secondary schools when the curriculum is fully implemented.

To alleviate the perennial shortage of teachers and reasonably meet the demand of teachers in the country, TSC has recommended that universities be appropriately informed about the new subject areas to guide their admission of students pursuing teacher education to meet the projected demands.

“The commission is expected to project teacher demand levels and appropriate areas of focus that will inform the strategies for training and preparation of teachers who will be available and ready to handle the junior and secondary learning,” she said.

Recently, the commission stoked debate on its role when it sent a document to universities advising them to scrap the Bachelor of Education degree which has been in place since 1970. It recommended that teacher trainees undertake either a three-year Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science, study three teaching subjects and later take a post-graduate diploma in education.

The proposal, which drew opposition from some universities, is still awaiting stakeholder engagement and approval from the Commission for University Education.

Speaking to the Nation a week ago, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) chief executive Charles Ong’ondo said universities should be able to churn out graduate teachers with relevant skills to handle learners in junior and senior secondary.

“We call upon universities to ensure their teacher training programmes are aligned with the CBC,” said Prof Ong’ondo.

According to the KICD basic education framework, all learners in junior secondary will learn the same subjects but will branch off to one of the pathways in senior secondary. The pathways include arts and sports science, social sciences, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem).