President William Ruto now says his administration will review the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Speaking shortly after taking his oath of office at the Kasarani Stadium on Tuesday, President Ruto noted that his administration will set up a task force to address challenges surrounding the CBC transition.
“We will establish an Education Reform Task Force in the Presidency which will be launched in the coming weeks,” he said.
This comes a few months to the double transition of learners to secondary schools which has elicited reactions from parents concerning the limited accommodation.
According to the Ministry of Education’s revised primary and secondary school calendar for 2021 to 2023, current class eight learners will sit for their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in December and join form one in January.
Grade Seven learners under the CBC will also move to Junior High School (JSS) in January 2023.
The government’s policy of 100 percent transition together with the 6 million learners CBC expected, mounts a big population that questions if the available infrastructure will comfortably facilitate the transition.
The former administration did not successfully set up enough infrastructure in schools, so far only two classrooms have been constructed per school.
Other challenges raised include, unpreparedness by the teachers, syllabus confusion and staff shortage which questions the fitness of the curriculum.
Parents, over the recent past have decried the costs they incur in terms of buying extra books, printing materials and being part of learner’s assignments.