The basic education principal secretary, Julius Jwan has said that primary school timetables will be reviewed to compensate for time lost to CBC.

Jwan was reacting to the Tusome research findings, which showed that the ability of learners to write or read in English and Kiswahili has dropped significantly.

According to the report by curriculum materials providers, Tusome, schools have lost up to 30 lessons in English and Kiswahili since the rollout of the new curriculum.

The study, dubbed ‘Tusome external evaluation end-line report’, assessed the implementation of the ‘Tusome’ project in lower primary in public schools.

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Tusome, which was launched in 2014 to help learners in Grade 1, 2 and 3 to fluently read in English and Kiswahili found that teachers seem comfortable using Tusome material in the classroom, but face inadequate time under CBC. 

Shocked by the report and in defence to the findings, Jwan said that the government would review the timetable in schools to reclaim time lost for English and Kiswahili lessons.

Under CBC learners in lower primary take 35 lessons each week in nine subjects.The subjects include Literacy Activities, Kiswahili, English, Mathematics, Environmental Activities, Hygiene and Nutrition, Religious Education, Physical Education, and Pastoral Programme of Instruction.

Mathematics, literacy activities, Environment get the highest allocation with five lessons each week.

Kiswahili, English, and Religious Education on the other hand have three lessons each week.Hygiene and nutrition are taught twice each week while the Pastrol programme is taught once a week.

If the timetable is reviewed, teachers of English and Kiswahili will have more contact hours with the pupils and the ability of  the learners to read and write English and Kiswahili will increase.

The competency-based curriculum, CBC has been so demanding that the hours spent by teachers of English and Kiswahili with learners have considerably reduced.

According to the  report by curriculum materials providers, Tusome, schools have lost up to 30 lessons in English and Kiswahili since the rollout of the new curriculum.

The study, dubbed ‘Tusome external evaluation end-line report’, assessed the implementation of the ‘Tusome’ project in lower primary in public schools.

Tusome, which was launched in 2014 to help learners in Grade 1, 2 and 3 to fluently read in English and Kiswahili found that teachers seem comfortable using Tusome material in the classroom, but face inadequate time under CBC. 

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“However, the teachers have faced significant challenges following the 40 per cent reduction on instructional hours allocated to English and Kiswahili under the Competency-based Curriculum,” reads the report.

Learners’ ability to read in English and Kiswahili has significantly dropped on account of the fewer hours.

Under the CBC, learners take three Kiswahili and English lessons each week unlike  in the 8-4-4 system, English and Kiswahili lessons were taught each day of the week.

About 70 hours of teaching and learning Kiswahili and English have been lost. “Endline results found on average that teachers were around 30 lessons behind since the last evaluation,” the report reads.

The majority of the learners assessed were still struggling to read at least 20 words each minute correctly.

In Grade 1, 72 per cent of learners were not able to read at least 20 English words each minute while in Grade 2 some 46 per cent could not handle the same task.

In Kiswahili, the situation is worse as some 62 per cent of Grade 1 learners could not read as were another 29 per cent of Grade 2 pupils.