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At least 100,000 teachers will be trained this week in preparation for the roll-out of the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) Grade 5 programme in July.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) said the target group will be two teachers and head teacher from each public primary and Special Needs Education (SNE) schools.

“TSC has planned the training of teachers in CBC from May 25 to June 4. The mode of training will be blended (virtual and face-to-face),” said TSC, in a circular sent to regional and county directors.

The directions for the training were contained in a circular signed by Dr Reuben Nthamburi for TSC Secretary, Dr Nancy Macharia.

CBC is a new system of education designed by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) team and launched by the Ministry of Education in 2017. 

It is designed to emphasize the significance of developing skills and knowledge and also applying those competencies to real life situations.  

Zonal training of teachers started yesterday and will run through Friday.

“The target groups for the training will be head teachers from regular and special needs education, one teacher from Grades 1 to 3 and another from Grade 4 to 5 also drawn from regular and special schools, respectively,” said

TSC said the training will be conducted in three stages; the first being for master trainers training Curriculum Support Officers (CSOs) and CBC Champions at county level. This was conducted virtually last week, May 25 – 27.

Virtual training

The CSOs and CBC Champions will in turn train teachers through face-to-face model with strict adherence to Covid-19 protocols, for five days with each training room having at least 15 teachers.

The regional and county directors were tasked with coordinating and monitoring CSOs and Champions’ virtual training, and invite head teachers and teachers to be trained for 5 days.

The directors were also expected to identify suitable venues with CSOs and sub-county directors of education for purposes of training, coordinate training materials on time and monitor training sessions. 

For special education, teachers will be trained for foundation and intermediate level in special schools for learners with intellectual disability, autism, deafblind, severe cerebral palsy and multiple disability. 

Focus will also be made for learners with visual, hearing and physical impairment.

“In areas where there are no special schools, invite one teacher from selected special units,” advised the TSC.

So far, TSC has trained more than 340,000 teachers from public and private schools on CBC.

  Schools will start a new calender in July. 

 The new year entails the rollout of   Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) Grade 5 programme. 

Learners in Grade 4 will go back to school in in July. They were part of the first batch of learners, who reopened in the first batch of the phased resumption of learning after the Covid-19 closure in October 2020.