Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Shock, confusion rock Ministry of Education after Amina’s 8-4-4 decision

New Curriculum: BY BUSINESS DAILY: Education secretary Amina Mohamed ignored a report by technical officers at the ministry suggesting preparedness to implement the new syllabus when she cancelled the curriculum.

The report submitted to Uasin Gishu Senator Margaret Kamar-chaired Committee on Education on Tuesday indicated that the country was fully prepared for the new curriculum.

Ms Mohamed ignored the report and revealed the country was not ready for the new curriculum that was introduced this year under pilot, reverting to the 8-4-4 system introduced in 1984.

The technical team that accompanied her to the Senate on Tuesday, including Education PS Belio Kipsang and the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) chief executive Julius Jwan, dismayed.

“The Ministry of Education is fully prepared and has made adequate arrangements for the continued implementation of the competency-based curriculum in terms of teaching materials, facilities and teachers,” said the technical team in its presentation.

The new curriculum was to be rolled out from nursery school to Class Three while piloting in Class Four was to start next year. This after two years of piloting for the lower classes.

On Wednesday, publishers warned that they would lose billions of shillings since they put money in the publishing of new learning materials. Parents also raised concerns about the decision, saying that most of them had bought books.

They wondered what will happen to children who are supposed to revert to the old curriculum.

Donors and other partners had also pumped in billions of shillings into the provision of new learning materials.

In a prepared report, Ms Mohamed had indicated that the ministry had made adequate arrangements for the continued implementation of the competency-based curriculum in terms of teaching materials, facilities and teachers.

On teaching materials, the minister had indicated that 219 titles or textbooks had been evaluated and approved for early learning education (pre-primary, Grade 1 to Grade 3).

She also indicated that the ministry had mounted training for early education teachers at the 1,168 education zones in the country. An education zone is made up of 20 primary schools.

The report by the minister also stated that a total of 71 master trainers, 507 trainers of trainers, 3360 regional trainers, 96,522 primary school teacher and 79,760 pre-primary teachers had been trained.

The Tuesday disclosure that the country was unprepared has left confusion in the education sector with a national steering committee meeting, which was to be held yesterday, being called off.

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