Kenyans have called for radical reforms in the education sector, including an overhaul of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) and a return to a reformed and improved 8-4-4 system.

Opinion was, however, divided as some stakeholders called for reorganisation of CBC to make it more affordable for all.

This emerged as parents, learners, teachers, political leaders and other stakeholders gave their views to the presidential taskforce on education reforms, which embarked on public engagements yesterday.

The 42-member team, which was appointed by President William Ruto last month, visited 10 counties on its first day of public hearings. It was set up to give recommendations on how the education curriculum can be improved and is expected to give its recommendations by January.

Officially known as the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER), the team yesterday visited Kwale, Taita Taveta, Marsabit, Nyandarua, Turkana, Kericho, Busia, Migori, Mandera and Samburu counties.

In Nyandarua, Governor Moses Kiarie Badilisha proposed that Junior Secondary School (JSS) be domiciled in primary schools to give learners time to mature physically.

 “I support that CBC be retained but with reforms to offset the burden now being carried by parents,” the Governor told the team led by University of Nairobi (UoN) Vice Chancellor, Prof Stephen Kiama.

Kiama urged Kenyans to give their views on general reforms in the education sector saying that his team has not only been mandated to collect views on CBC.

“The team is aimed at receiving views on governance of schools, capitation and curricular at all levels of education to inform a common front for the sector,” he said.

Grade Six parents who made their submissions said pre-teen learners in Grade Six and Seven would be prone to harassment by their older peers in secondary schools if they are admitted there.

“I am not ready to take my child to a secondary school where they will interact with more mature students unless it is a day school,” said one parent, Steven Mucheru. “We are used to transitioning teenagers to secondary schools but these children will be too young to be subjected to life in a secondary school set up.”

 Inadequate facilities

A pupil at Wagatuigu Primary School, said he was afraid of joining secondary school for Grade Seven because he was too young to face the secondary school teenagers.

“We are too young for secondary and we prefer remaining in primary school until we mature enough for the rite of passage,” the Grade Six pupil said.

Peter Maina, the Vice Chair of the Nyandarua Chapter of the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association, acknowledged the challenge of molestation in schools, noting that young learners would be susceptible to psychological torture.

He said available facilities in sub-county secondary schools, where parents are likely to take their children to be day scholars, had inadequate facilities to accommodate more learners.

“The crowds in common facilities will be worsened yet our primary schools will have underutilised facilities,” he said. Our teachers are already overwhelmed because they are few,” he said.

In Taita Taveta, parents had reactions to CBC with some calling on the Prof Raphael Munavu-led team to shelve the new curriculum until proper structures are put in place.

Some parents criticised CBC’s “hidden costs,” which they said make it expensive. They proposed that it be abolished.

Some said the cost of printing assignments had made the curriculum burdensome and if the trend continues, education will become unaffordable.

Magret Mwasaru, a Grade Five parent at Mwatate Primary, said her daughter once went home with instructions requiring her to print out pictures of a mountain. At the time, she thought this was just a one off assignment.

“We went to a nearby cyber café and completed the task but it cost me almost Sh300. I thought I was done but there was more. A few days later,  she came with more instructions. This time, we were required to print a picture of a mushroom and later a photo of Adam and Eve,” Mwasaru said.

For her, the assignments were costly.

Parents and teachers who disagreed with her said the curriculum was fair but has been made unfriendly by inadequate preparations for training of teachers and putting in place proper infrastructure.

“CBC is a very good curriculum… the only problem is that the expenses keep on increasing every day,” a parent identified as Andrew Mkoji said.

Teachers attributed the hitches associated with CBC to inadequate preparedness by both teachers and parents on implementation of curriculum.

“The President’s directive to form a taskforce for public participation on CBC is spot on because it will help give a fair reflection of how prepared we are in terms of transition considering that now we have Class 8 candidates under 8-4-4 joining Form One and the Grade Six class under CBC will be in JSS in secondary schools,” said David Muiya, a retired teacher from Taveta. “Most parents have raised concern about CBC and called for its scrapping. However, I believe this has emerged because teachers were not prepared adequately,” he said.

He proposed that CBC be adequately funded to ensure successful and efficient implementation of the curriculum.

Another parent said: “This system is simply silent torture to our children and to us as parents. Lower primary education has become too expensive. This thing just needs to go”.

In Kwale, called on the government to improve the old 8-4-4 education system. They, too, said CBC was too expensive and requires a lot of resources to be implemented.

Speaking at Kwale High School during an open forum, the parents, led by Hussein Mgunga, said CBC was too expensive for parents to fulfill all the requirements.

Buy all requirements

“Most of the learners go to school without things the teacher has asked for because parents cannot afford,” Mgunga said. According to him, parents are going through tough times to make ends meet and the CBC is becoming another thorny issue.  “For 8-4-4, we only used to buy books and that is all but with this CBC, it is stressful to us parents. Some of us cannot afford and the government should do away with it,” he said.

Another group of parents, however, said that if the government sees CBC as the best system for pupils, it should then cater for all the requirements.

Led by Kevin Oluoch, the parents said they should only be left to buy books and pay school fees as the government provides for all the CBC materials that teachers will need.

“The government should help us with the burden that comes with it,” Oluoch said. The government recently stated that it will not repeal CBC but will instead strengthen and review it.

The 42-member taskforce has been directed to work towards addressing the challenges raised so far on the education system. They have to give their recommendations before January when secondary schools are likely to witness a double intake, one for Form One who will be sitting KCPE and for Grade Eight, who will sitting KCBE this month.