-
About 1.5 million learners currently in Grade 5 are expected to transition to Grade 6 at the beginning of May.
-
They will sit the national exam in November and move to junior secondary school in January.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
Secondary school heads’ input is vital to the successful implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum, the educators have said.
Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association national chairman Indimuli Kahi said it's important to collect principals' suggestions as they are directly involved in the management of education.
He spoke on Monday at Sheikh Zayed Hall in Mombasa, where the 45th Kessha annual conference is taking place.
About 1.5 million learners currently in Grade 5 are expected to transition to Grade 6 at the beginning of May.
They will sit the national exam in November and move to junior secondary school in January.
The national government is currently building 10,000 CBC classrooms countrywide for junior secondary school.
It is also training about 60,000 secondary school teachers.
“We need to put all our thoughts as Kenyans together and we want to hear the voice of the principals because they are very critical in the management of education,” Kahi said.
He said secondary school heads need to look at the curriculum design to determine whether they are ready to accommodate junior secondary.
“These pupils will be joining junior secondary school next year. We would want to hear from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development if the curriculum designs are ready. Are they available so that we have time to look at them, critique and give corrections?” Kahi said.
He said KICD should not wait until learners are in school to distribute the curriculum designs.
“We need to take a look at the designs early enough to know what is expected of us in order to be ready to take in the children,” the school head said.
More than 9,000 secondary school heads have gathered for the five-day forum, which is expected to be officially opened by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday.
The conference, whose theme is 'Re-examining our future together; a new era of education in Kenya', runs from April 18 to 22. About 2,000 exhibitors are taking part.
Kahi said there is a need to bring together education stakeholders to discuss the way forward for the sector.
“The theme is appropriate as the education sector is coming out in a new way, first from the corona pandemic and secondly transitioning to the Competency-Based Curriculum from the 8-4-4 system,” he said.
Kahi said there is need to look into the issue of capitation to ensure that school heads get enough funding to run schools.
Education CS George Magoha and Early Learning and Basic Education PS Julius Jwan are expected to shed more light on this on Thursday.
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya