Despite the arrest of several officials from Kakamega and Makueni counties being arrested for disrupting teachers’ training for the new curriculum that began in April, Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion has further probed teachers to resist the new competency based curriculum.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) leader reported in adverts ion local dailies insists that the new curriculum is illegal.
“There is no statutory instruments to anchor the exercise, no Commission gazetted to manage the process, and the exercise is in total contravention of Public Participation Act (2018),” says Mr Sossion.
“Worse still, it is laughable that the Ministry of Education while reforming the Education Curriculum, benchmarked with countries like Tanzania, South Africa, Malaysia, Zanzibar, Ghana, Uganda, Burundi, among others where CBC has failed. Kenya also benchmarked with South Sudan which borrowed the 8-4-4 Education system,” reads the report.
However, Mr Sossion insists that Knut would support all initiatives made by the government to reform the education sector, including reviewing the curriculum “as long as it is in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
He adds that the requirements for the new curriculum are far above what the country can afford at the moment due to financial implications.
“This is because the implementation of CBC requires small class sizes as per UNESCO recommended standards for personalised learning, which means more classrooms, libraries, workshops, computer rooms and more schools have to be constructed. Most public schools lack infrastructures, at least three teachers per class are required which Kenya cannot afford presently because of acute shortage of teachers. Kenya faces perpetual shortage of teachers, hence CBC would be a nightmare if introduced. There is no feasible plan to recruit more teachers,” states Mr Sossion.
This evidently poses a battle with government, even as Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai directed County and Sub-County commanders to ensure the new curriculum training of 91,000 teachers, which was launched by Education Cabinet Secretary Prof Magoha goes on uninterrupted.
In a statement, the IG of Police says they will not allow anyone to sabotage the exercise saying those aggrieved should follow the provided legal procedures to address their grievances.
The announcement subsequently followed the arrest of the Knut officials in Kakamega and Makueni for adhering to the Knut boss directive to boycott the process.