The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has embarked on a week-long retraining of teachers who will teach the new education system developed to replace the 8-4-4 syllabus.
Some 1,888 teachers from the 47 counties will from Monday be taken through the syllabus that was endorsed by the institute’s academic committee last week.
In a press release today by KICD, curriculum developers have been dispatched to the counties with appropriate learning materials to ensure the teachers are well versed with the contents of the new curriculum.
“We have ensured that no player in the education sector is left behind. For the first time, even those with special needs are working on the curriculum on their own to ensure it meets their needs,” KICD director, Dr Julius Jwan said.
There will be between 80 to 100 teachers per class, besides 1,150 field officers from the Ministry of Education who will also be part of the training on the Basic Education Curriculum Framework (BECF). Teachers from Nairobi and Kajiado counties will converge at the KICD Monday tomorrow and Tuesday for the sessions.
Staggered learning
The teachers will be expected to start teaching the curriculum in the selected pilot schools on May 29, and the outcomes will come handy during fine tuning of the curriculum ahead of the scheduled roll out in all schools in January.
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The proposed 2-6-6-3 curriculum is based on a needs assessment conducted by the institute that was presented at the National Conference on Curriculum Reforms that culminated in a major conference in January 2017 to deliberate on the matter.
The implementation of the proposed curriculum is staggered, with the focus now being on the early years, these being two years of pre-school education, and the first two years of primary education. The current system has been criticized for being too examination oriented with a lot of content that has turned out to be a burden to learners.
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Members of the public have been encouraged to volunteer their views to enrich the system that is one of the education reforms envisaged to make the country’s education system more globally competitive.
“We will be getting feedback as we go along. This will help us improve the process and will determine the way forward,” Dr Jwan said in response to those with information they want to share.
“This is a study. It is research. When you are doing and testing something, the results of the process will determine how you move on” he said.
Dr Jwan said curriculum support officers in the counties have been incorporated in the program that will allow teachers to compare the current system with the new one. “This is not going to be a dead end. It will be a continuous process. The process is very inclusive and entails professionals from all the education players,” he said.
Dr Jwan said the development of the curriculum is guided by the national goals of education, which recognize the need to have international consciousness embedded in learning to ensure Kenyans fit into the global arena.
[crp]
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