The government has been asked to start preparing universities and colleges to have their programmes align to the competency-based curriculum (CBC).
Speaking at a dialogue forum on education quality and learning outcomes held at a Kakamega school, the acting Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Planning, Research and Innovation at Masinde Muliro University Prof. Peter Bukhala said that the state was yet to facilitate many public universities to train teachers towards delivery of CBC programmes.
He said universities risked being caught unprepared for the CBC unless the government institutes urgent reforms to ensure that as students transition to universities in 2029, proper structures are in place for smooth transition.
“The Ministry of Education needs to collaborate with universities and should not wait till 2029 to rush the training when students will be transiting from senior secondary school to university,” he added.
Prof. Bukhala said CBC curriculum should be more flexible to allow learners to enrol in universities for their respective new short courses in line with the prior learning initiatives in order to facilitate easier transition.
“While the system is good and in line with the developed world systems of education, we are worried that the first intake in 2029 will come when proper mechanisms of the students have not been addressed well,” he said.
He observed the stakeholders in the sector have concentrated so much on junior secondary schools to the extent that no consideration was going on about where the students would go after finishing the senior secondary level of education.
He lamented that universities’ input on the CBC system is not at par with what should be happening by now. “I think universities have had an opportunity to discuss the CBC. They have had seminars and workshops on the CBC. But that integration of what they think they want to do is not in line with what you are seeing has already been done,” he complained.
Prof. Bukhala called for a universal approach on the CBC that would see good transition from grade one all the way up to the universities in order to realise tangible results in future.
Speaking at the forum, the Chief Principal Lugari Teachers Training College Anne Esese said teacher training colleges lacked trained teachers to teach new learning pathways like building construction, woodwork and electrical engineering.
“We do not have trained teachers and we are compelled to use other teachers including physics ones, to teach those key subjects,” she added.
The principal said they were experiencing challenges in schools when trainee teachers sent on practice were exposed to teaching CBC without being adequately prepared by their mentor teachers.
“Teachers sent on practice are supposed to work under shadow mentors but instead they are being exposed directly to teaching without being mentored,” she said.
The county-based dialogues have been organised by the State Department for Basic Education to engage stakeholders on CBC progress, achievements and bottlenecks as well as find a way forward.
By Albert Muteshi
