Parents have praised President William Ruto’s decision to form an education reform task force to review the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), calling it a timely intervention that will clear up any confusion.
The National Parents Association has stated that it supports the new curriculum, but that there are some gray areas that must be addressed for it to be successful.
An outcry has been raised by a group of education stakeholders who want the new government to scrap CBC and return to the old curriculum.
Parents and teachers complain that the new model burdens children and parents with excessive homework and is costly.
President Ruto stated in his inauguration speech on September 13 that a robust discussion about CBC was taking place.
“Public participation is critical in this matter. I will establish an education reform task force in the office of the President, which will be launched in the coming weeks,” announced the President.
The parents’ club, which last week urged the government not to scrap CBC, welcomed the planned review, saying it was timely given the implementation difficulties.
The association chairman in Eldoret, Nicholas Maiyo, said although they support CBC rollout, there is an urgent need to address the teething problems at the formative stage.
“Although the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has assured us that everything is okay, the demand on parents is huge and the task force is welcome to uncover the grey areas,” he said.
Parents across the country complain CBC is very expensive citing a recent incident where children were asked to each bring a chicken to school.
According to Mr Maiyo, there is a significant gap between what KICD told parents and how CBC was implemented in schools.
“Parents have been subjected to a lot of challenges. Some of them are being inconvenienced while undertaking homework with their children late into the night,” he said.
Mr Maiyo, however, remained adamant that CBC should not be scrapped, claiming that doing so would be “catastrophic.”
