Don't bulldoze CBC as it will fail, CS Magoha told

Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba has urged Education CS George Magoha  not to bulldoze CBC or it will fail.

Milemba, who is also Kuppet national chairperson, called for discussions with all education stakeholders to ensure state resources in the project are not wasted.

He said secondary school teachers are not well involved in the process, yet they are the ones who will take over from junior secondary lelvel.

“CBC will be implemented. What we need is the input of all stakeholders and to stop the chest-thumping on this crucial matter,” Milemba said on Saturday.

The lawmaker said with the current system, learners are full of theories that are not fit for the job market. "However, CBC is practical but we need to put it in place in a sober way that won’t affect us," he said.

The Emuhaya MP said in 2023 the government will experience a serious crisis of accommodating students who would have transitioned to secondary school.

“We are struggling with 100 per cent transition, so many schools are congested. What will be the situation in 2023 when we shall have the double intake?” Milemba asked.

He said rural areas will be underprivileged in the new education system when it comes to infrastructure development in schools.

The lawmaker wants the ministry to register all functional schools countrywide and facilitate them with enough teachers to ease learning.

He proposes that each primary school should have its secondary school to avoid congestion when the CBC transition kicks in.

The lawmaker says there are so many unregistered schools that can help to ease congestion in public schools.

“These schools both new and old should have a secondary school that will enable us to achieve those 100 per cent transitions in 2023, when we will have two groups proceeding to secondary school,” Milemba said.

The MP's sentiments come as education stakeholders remain divided over the implementation of the new Competency-Based Curriculum.

Majority who spoke to the Star want the Ministry of Education to reconsider how the implementation can be done, by safeguarding the parents’ interest and that of school going children.

CBC is divided into three categories: Pre-primary and lower primary, upper primary and junior secondary and finally senior school.

Milemba said CBC might have its technicalities at the moment but it will advance as time goes.

“Everything has its beginning, and at that starting point hiccups must be there, but as the process goes on things just line up in order,” he said.

Parents are complaining of difficulties of the system. "At night I get trouble when helping my Grade 2 son with his assignments. The CBC is hard even for us parents," Enock  Amukhale , a parent from Emuhaya, said.

Governor Wilber Ottichilo on Monday said there is a need for the national government to subsidise the cost of the new curriculum.

"CBC is very expensive to parents. We need to help them and make it cheaper, lest we lose the importance of education," Ottichilo said on a phone interview.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)