- The former MP said reforms should always be left in the hands of professionals who best understand areas to make workable changes.
- He claimed the former administration took advantage of the curriculum roll out to benefit their personal interests.
Image: FILE
Former Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion has urged the state to reconfigure the CBC, to help fulfil its promises on industrialisation.
“We must reconfigure our education system to support industrialisation. This curriculum has no link to socio-economic change,” he said.
Sossion who spoke during an interview with Citizen TV on Friday said the curriculum, as it is, could cripple the country’s future economy and subject citizens to enslavement by foreign entities.
“CBC was politically imposed and hurriedly implemented on us. You cannot do a pilot between June 2017 and October 2017, without even an assumptive report and roll it out the following year,” he said.
The former Nominated MP said president Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration acted in a manner to appease foreign countries.
He said they forgot the “injuries of the implementation on the nation’s goals as well as development plans.”
“It was imposed on us for foreign interest. When it is about foreign interest, it will have no connection to national goals and development plans,” Sossion said.
The former unionist said such reforms should always be left in the hands of professionals who best understand areas to make workable changes.
“If we want to succeed let the professionals do their work and design a profession that works in a proper manner," he said.
"We will not have it wrong if we allow professionals to do their work. The task force will identify the issues and provide solutions.”
Sossion further claimed the former administration took advantage of the curriculum roll out to benefit their personal interest since Kenyans had no say neither was it tabled before Parliament for discussion.
“Cartels have taken over this programme for purposes of business. This curriculum was not designed by Kenyans as it never had their input, neither did critical institutions like Parliament get to discuss it,” he said
The former legislator however said all is not lost as President William Ruto’s administration is putting in efforts to review the curriculum.
“I think we missed so much on this but we have an opportunity to review this through the domicile task force review,” he said.
Sossion said all this time Kenyans have been fooled by the government for there has never been a serious transformation by the Competency Based Curriculum.
He said teachers have been teaching outcome based curriculum.
“We are cheating ourselves as a country because there has never been CBC in our classrooms. When a curriculum is not accepted by parents and children are not excited about it, it’s a wrong curriculum,” he said.
Sossion said the government’s intervention on the curriculum issue will be a review and not to scrap it off as alleged by many.
“It's simplistic to say either scrap off or retain CBC, we want to review our education system,” he said.
The former legislator also said the government will not politically associate the reforms to the previous administration.
He said it will instead act diligently and do the noble thing of taking it to the people for public participation.
“We will not be political when it comes to CBC, we will take it to the public with terms of reference,” Sossion said.
The former unionist further said the curriculum intensified inequality among children for not all parents have been at ease of procuring the learning tools.
He said public schools have also had a hard time with the system.
“CBC has exacerbated inequality among children. Teaching and learning tools are bought by parents, what about parents who can’t afford them? Public schools can’t mount this curriculum,” Sossion said.
The CBC was drafted by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. The curriculum was introduced in 2017 after an approval by the Ministry Education.
It substituted 8-4-4 with a 2-6-6-3 system, with classes being named as grades.
CBC’s was meant to centrally focus learners on discovering their potentials early in life.
It aimed to create a platform where learners can positively relate to acquiring knowledge and skills and connect with various disciplines as they progress.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)