Mount Kenya University founder and chairman Dr Simon Gicharu has pleaded with Knut to let teachers be trained in the Competency-Based Curriculum.
Gicharu told officials of the Kenya National Union of Teachers on Thursday to keep off the training sessions going on in all education zones in the country and give the state a chance to implement the new system.
Speaking at MKU main campus in Thika after registering for the Huduma Namba, the chairman said the training of 91,000 teachers will enhance implementation of the new curriculum. He said this would encourage innovation and creativity among children.
“The new curriculum is the best choice the government made through the Education ministry and as it seeks to implement it for the benefit of our children. People should stop creating hurdles,” Gicharu said.
He said the training was vital in preparing the teachers for the new curriculum.
Gicharu told the teachers’ union to support it and give the system a chance, instead of rushing to criticise it.
He said the union will have enough reason to oppose it if it flops or fails to meet the targets.
The chairman spoke after Knut officials invaded and disrupted the ongoing CBC training in several centres including Oriang’, Nyarabi and Got Rateng' primary schools in Kabondo Kasipul, Homa Bay county.
Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion had told teachers to boycott the training and switch off their phones over what he called lack of public participation for the CBC rollout.
The union had previously fought the new curriculum on grounds that teachers had not been properly trained.
Gicharu told Kenyans to reject the culture of rejecting every government programme without justifiable reasons, saying it will work against the country’s vision for growth.
“We need to give teachers an opportunity to be trained and after training, let the teachers themselves say whether the training was worth it,” he said.
Gicharu, however, called on Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha to hold stakeholders’ consultations countrywide as the ministry implements the new education system.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)
