•Ministry of Education wants to train over 91,000 teachers from April 23
•Knut boss Wilson Sossion says exercise is against the law as curriculum violated guidelines
Image: FILE
Teachers have been directed to boycott next week’s training on the competency-based curriculum.
The directive was made by Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary general Wilson Sossion on Wednesday, saying the training was "a violation of the law".
The training, scheduled to start on April 23, is intended to instil new teaching skills to over 91,000 teachers.
Sossion said in a statement, “The law requires that an exercise of such magnitude must have guidelines and a gazetted commission to anchor the entire process. Besides, the due process of reforming the content of the curriculum was never followed to the letter, hence making the entire exercise illegal.”
On March 19, Knut released an internal audit report that showed most schools in Kenya were not fully prepared to handle the 2-6-3-3-3 curriculum.
The ministry rolled out the system nationally in January from Pre-unit and Grade 1-3 after a piloting phase in 33,000 private and public primary schools last year.
The report showed schools lacked teaching and learning materials, standard infrastructure and enough teachers.
The study conducted between January and March further revealed that teachers were not sufficiently trained to teach the new curriculum.
Whereas the ministry moves to fix this, Sossion said it will be an exercise in futility as no teacher will attend the training.
“It is important for our members to note that their counterparts elsewhere in the world have successfully boycotted this system. The US teachers have successfully resisted it three times. The UK teachers have rejected it. It failed in South Africa because teachers boycotted training,” Sossion said.
He termed the CBC as an ill-prepared learning system that should not be accepted.
On April 15, Knut's National Executive Council members and executive secretaries from 110 branches swore to boycott the training over the Easter holiday and on weekends.
They said it was wrong for the ministry to subject teachers to training, while the rest of Kenyans celebrated the Easter holiday.
Further, the officials argued that their insurance cover caters only for school activities on weekdays between 8.30am and 4pm.
“No teacher will be subjected to work during Easter, Good Friday and the weekends. The Education ministry should ensure teachers work during the normal time," John Wesonga, Knut National Executive Council member and executive secretary Mumias branch, said.