Listening to Kenyans on a Friday morning this week from various stakeholders on a morning FM radio station talk show, one gets a picture of hopelessness, despair and lost hope in the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in the education sector.
What surprised me, even more, is the fact that policy managers and sector stakeholders paint a bleak future for the future of about 950,000 youth transiting to grade ten next year.
Some stakeholders such as ‘Usawa kwa Wote’, wondered why President William Ruto transferred Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang, who understands the benefits and challenges of CBC, to the Immigration ministry last Thursday.
The move, according to stakeholders, leaves the current Education Cabinet secretary Julius Magamba, very vulnerable while attempting to implement the CBC.
One of the callers summarised his frustrations thus: “We risk losing a whole generation of almost a million youth if no urgent and focused decisions are taken to address the teachers’ shortage, infrastructures, such as laboratories and workshops, while policy managers should stop issuing conflicting guidelines.”
Such remarks from a desperate parent, summarily depict a true picture of confusion bedevilling the education sector, considering that the current cohort of CBC pupils has been prepared on a shaky foundation.
At a cursory glance, most Junior Secondary school (JSS) teachers have art combinations of Geography-History, History-Christian Religious Education (CRE), Kiswahili-CRE, Kiswahili-History, and Kiswahili-Geography. Last year, TSC recruited JSS Science intern teachers—one per school across the country.
The situation is dire in science technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers because there are hardly any in our JSS schools.
Therefore, the art teachers, who trained in arts subjects at university, are handling STEM subjects at our JSS schools after undergoing what is euphemistically called retooling. This is a continuous training organised by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over the holidays.
However, we have an issue here. These arts teachers found themselves in the Bachelor of Education in Arts because they did not meet the cluster points set for STEM courses.
Factually, most of them hated science in their secondary schools and could have willingly dropped Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Physics, were it not for the caveat that one must be tested in maths and at least two science subjects to qualify for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
It is an open secret that since one must take science subjects to qualify for KCSE, then the causality subject of choice to drop is invariably physics. But its part of the integrated science package that these arts teachers are teaching in JSS today.
So, will the retooling in science content and methodology cure the yawning gap in teaching personnel in JSS schools? A way out can be posting all practising primary school teachers with Bachelor of Education certificates in science subjects to JSS schools to mitigate this deficiency.
Additionally, universities should deliberately increase their capacity to train more STEM teachers instead of the oversupply of art teachers they keep training each year.
Another caller, Mwalimu Daniel Muriithi put the challenges bedevilling the CBC on the government doorsteps, by stating the dilemma they face on how to advise the grade 10 students with science bias, but haven’t been taught any biology, physics, chemistry or woodwork on the choice of courses to choose for higher learning.
The above scenario leaves parents confused, as their role in the education of their students has been completely ignored. The government needs to sensitise them on their roles, as per the CBC guidelines.
A closer look at subjects such as sports, for example, does not need a trained sports teacher to teach the pupils.
World-class athletes such as Eliud Kipchoge only need invitations from schools to impart practical lessons to those with a passion for sports.
