- Schools will close for 10 days beginning next week and the reopening will mark the start of 2021 academic year.
- It also doubles as the rollout date of the CBC to Grade 5 that leaves the pioneer class with one more year to exit primary school.
Image: GEORGE MURAGE
As the competency-based curriculum advances to Grade 5, the government has remained silent on the plan to roll out foreign languages in public schools.
The government has procured 14 million textbooks for CBC rollout to Grade 5 for all subjects under the new curriculum except for foreign languages.
Kenya Publishers Association chairman Lawrence Njagi on Wednesday said the distribution of the books is on course and will continue to July 10.
Schools will close for 10 days beginning next week and the reopening will mark the start of 2021 academic year.
It also doubles as the rollout date of the CBC to Grade 5 that leaves the pioneer class with one more year to exit primary school.
However, the pioneer class risks not having a chance to study a foreign language as the curriculum promised.
It was envisaged in the new curriculum blueprint that foreign languages and even mother tongue would be introduced as early as learners were in Grade 3.
Njagi told the Star that publishers have submitted foreign language textbooks for approval to the curriculum developer, have been approved and are available in the market but the government does not tender them.
The publishers are on the tail end of supplying textbooks to be used in teaching the competency-based curriculum in Grade 5.
He said the government had tendered 14 million books for Agriculture, Art and Craft, CRE, English, Hindu, and Islamic Religious Education, Home Science, Kiswahili and Mathematics.
Other subjects include Music, Physical Health Education, Social Studies, Science and Technology.
Foreign languages in the Kenyan education spectrum again opens up the big debate on the disparity and inequality gap between private and public education
Mutheu Kasanga of the Kenya Private Schools Association says private schools have successfully managed to mount foreign languages with the most common at the moment being French.
Kasanga notes that the subjects largely remain optional and just tested internally.
“Some students end up being really good at the foreign languages,” he said.
Njagi argues that Mandarin should widely be embraced and adopted by schools at an early stage noting it is “quickly becoming a second English”.
No teachers
The barrier to foreign languages being rolled out in public schools runs deeper than the lack of books. It extends to the lack of teachers to tutor the subjects.
The Teachers Service Commission does not deploy foreign language teachers in primary school.
In 2019, a task force led by PS curriculum reforms Fatuma Chege proposed revision of the language policy to address the introduction of indigenous languages and foreign languages in Grade 4.
The task force also recommended the introduction of foreign and indigenous languages for those undertaking diploma in Primary Teacher Education colleges.
This sought to create a pool of qualified teachers fully equipped to teach these languages at the primary school level.
It also proposed creation of synergy between the foreign missions and other stakeholders to enhance development of print and electronic materials for learning foreign languages.
-Edited by SKanyara