Education Cabinet Secretary (CS), Mr. Ezekiel Machogu, has called on teachers to ensure that children master literacy and numeracy skills by the time they complete grade three.
The CS said that foundational learning was the most critical stage of education, saying children who fail to master literacy and numeracy skills before they enter grade four find it difficult to master the skills.
Mr. Machogu made the remarks when the officials of the Kenya Primary School Heads Association (KEPHA), led by its chairman, Mr. Johnson Nzioka, paid him a courtesy call in his office on Monday. Also present during the occasion was the Principal Secretary for Basic Education, Dr. Belio Kipsang.
Mr. Machogu said that as stakeholders in education, teachers play a critical role in the education reform initiatives the government is undertaking.
“We cannot manage the competency-based curriculum (CBC) without teachers,” the Cabinet Secretary noted, saying the success of CBC will highly depend on the teacher.
He said the people who can create confidence in the CBC system are teachers.
The CS insisted that it was important that the government get teachers into classrooms in the north-eastern region.
“If we don’t, children in the area will be radicalised,” Mr. Machogu noted, saying the government decision to drop the cluster requirement would help secure prospective teachers to feed schools across the country, including the North Eastern Region and the North Rift.
He further said the reduction of subjects was meant to ease the curriculum load and was within the authority Parliament had given the Ministry to execute.
Dr. Kipsang asked the association to think about whether learners should have a two-month school holiday, as has been the case since 2016.
In his response, Mr. Nzioka said CBC was a good programme.
“I am happy that parents recommended to the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform (PWPER) to reduce the number of subjects to ease the curriculum load on learners,” he added.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
