CBC department requires Sh100m for vehicles, office, equipment

The State Department of Implementation of Curriculum Reforms is already beset by growth challenges a year after its unveiling. 

The sister department, Early Learning and Basic Education has had to step up when it comes to sharing of various resources.

The Curriculum Reforms Principal Secretary Fatuma Chege requested the education committee to approve their budget requests.

Chege cited a lack of vehicles, office space and equipment.

“We request the committee to consider and allocate us Sh67 million to procure six vehicles for a start,” Chege said.

She added that they currently use vehicles ‘donated’ by the Early Learning and Basic Education department. 

The PS also explained that the department requires Sh11 million to enable them secure an office space, which they already identified.

Currently, the department has no office space and its staff are housed by the Basic Education department. 

“It is increasingly becoming difficult to accommodate all our staff members as the number of officers being posted rises,” she said.

She also requested for Sh9 million to conduct office partitioning once they secure the location.

“We currently have dead computers and printers. That limits the scope of work we can do in a given day,” she said.

The department requires a total of Sh486.4 million to enable critical areas to be fully funded.

The Fatuma Chege- led department has been able to oversee textbooks distribution, capacity development and classroom-based assessment.

There is also the ongoing targeted infrastructure development in secondary schools through the economic stimulus programme of Competency-Based Curriculum classrooms.

They are also overseeing the revision of existing legal and policy frameworks and development of new policies in line with departmental mandates.

The department, which was unveiled by President Uhuru Kenyatta, was mandated to oversee implementation of the CBC. 

It also seeks to include recommendations of a task force whose report the President launched in February 2021.

Almost a year later, the subsector is still dependent on other departments for support in terms of resources.

About 8.1 million learners are in the current CBC and the pioneer cohort is expected to transit to junior secondary in 2023. 

The government has already disbursed Sh8 billion to improve infrastructure and build 10,000 classrooms for junior secondary learners by next year. 

The state also said more than Sh30 billion has been invested in textbooks to improve learner-to-book ratio in public schools as part of the tenets of CBC. 

(edited by Amol Awuor)