Allocate more funds to CBC, parents say

Stakeholders in the education sector want the government to allocate enough funds for the implementation of the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC).

They also want the workload given to the teachers and students reduced to manageable levels to stop burdening them too much.

In a public forum convened by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms at Murang’a Teachers’ College in Makuyu, the stakeholders said CBC is good but the government ought to put in place better structures to facilitate its smooth implementation.

Mark Wamuthenya, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Thika branch said lack of adequate materials and capitation from the government has been one of the biggest challenges.

He said the burden of sourcing learning materials has been left to the parents and this is causing financial constraints on them. “The government should provide the learning materials for the students and save the parents the agony of digging deeper in their pockets,” he said.

The Knut official also said the teachers are being overworked and especially while doing the assessment which is taking a lot of time.

David Mwaura, the chairman of, the National Parents Association in Murang’a said CBC was a good programme as it seeks to identify the talent of each learner to help them nurture it, however, the parents are bearing the brunt of it.

Mwaura said there were no proper consultations done before the rolling out of the programme to help the parents understand what the programme was all about.

Murang’a Senator Joe Nyutu, who doubles up as the chairman of the Education Committee in the Senate said if implemented in the right way, CBC will be the game changer in the country.