• Mandarin, French, Arabic, and German among languages to be included in upper primary.
• The new curriculum will see the number of subjects in Grade Four increase from six to 12.
The government has decided that Grade 4 children must learn foreign languages but there are fears that the country does not have qualified teachers.
According to the Competency-Based Curriculum, the six more new subjects, including foreign languages, will be rolled out in Grade 4 from next year.
The first lot of children undertaking the new curriculum is in Grade 3, meaning the country has only six months to the roll-out.
Among the languages the government plans to introduce are Arabic, French, Chinese and German.
There are also fears the country lacks specialised teachers to handle Home Science and Creative Arts, subjects to be introduced in Grade 4.
Education policy experts are proposing that either the foreign languages be shelved and taught in Grade 5 or primary schools specialise in at least one of the subjects, which will be optional.
The optional category includes all the four foreign languages, Arts and Crafts and Music.
The curriculum developer — the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development — downplayed claims of insufficient staff.
KICD chief executive officer Julius Jwan said the government is conducting an assessment to guide the next year's roll-out.
He declined to elaborate.
Jwan said the assessment will also be used to fill gaps identified in the current implementation.
"Depending on what the developers will gather the next few months we might see some shifts in the curriculum implementation," he said.
"The assessment seeks to find what is working and separate it from what's not working. This way we aim to create a level playing field for learners," Jwan told the Star on Thursday.
Already the KICD has released the curriculum design that will guide the implementation of the syllabus in Grade 4 beginning next year.
The document, 'Curriculum Designs: Upper Primary Level Design', reveals that the roll-out will double the scope of subjects taught in upper primary.
It says learners in Grade 4 will have a pool of 12 subjects.
The new syllabus will have Kiswahili, English, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Social Studies, Agriculture, Home Science, Religious Education, Creative Arts, Physical Health Education, Pastoral Programmes Instruction and other languages.
The learners will also take 40 lessons each week. Mathematics and Health Education allocated five lessons each week.
Kiswahili, English, and Science will have four lessons each week while Social Studies, Home Science, Agriculture, Religious Education and Creative Arts with three lessons each week.
New languages will be taught twice a week and the least taught subject, Pastoral Programme Instruction, will have one lesson each week.
On Thursday, Kenya Primary Schools Association Secretary General David Mavuta told the Star that the school heads had received the curriculum designs but are yet to get guidance on how the roll-out will be done.
"Lower primary is where a learner is prepared in the basics of literacy and mainly involves a simple grasp of counting and reading," he said.
Creative Arts
In Creative Arts, learners pursue Music or Arts and Crafts.
Music teachers will be required to guide learners in singing familiar songs with accurate pitch and rhythm.
Pupils will learn how to play traditional music instruments such as drums and wind instruments such as flutes and recorders. They will learn traditional dances.
Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion yesterday criticised next year's roll-out, saying it was a scheme by the government will cripple learning in public schools.
Sossion told the Star private schools will have an upper hand because of access to more and better facilities and teachers.
Sossion, an ODM nominated MP representing workers, said the new CBC is being pushed by foreigners and residents out to do business at the expense of the Kenyan child, a move with devastating effects.
“KICD should have resigned by now because they are not independent. This process is a short-cut being driven by cartels in the ministry... Next year, I can predict the separation of the wheat from the chaff," he said.
Former Commission for University Education CEO David Some yesterday said the government could use university graduates to teach arts subjects.
"South Africa recently introduced Kiswahili and this is one of the foreign subjects. To get teachers who can teach this, the government will import teachers from Kenya and Tanzania but we don't have to do all this because there are university graduates who can teach these subjects," Some told the Star.