Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers KUPPET has urged the taskforce on CBC to collect views from education stakeholders in order to come up with a report that will be acceptable to all concerned Kenyans.
National secretary for tertiary teachers Sammy Chelangat said the review must address the claims from parents that the system ‘was not only expensive but time consuming to them’.
Speaking during the KUPPET’S annual general meeting in Garissa, Chelangat said the union will be presenting their views that will touch critical areas that need to be addressed.
“We welcome the taskforce and we want to say that as a teachers’ union we have our opinion as professionals and people who must be consulted on matters education. As KUPPET we will be presenting our memorandum in all the 47 counties where we have braches,” Chelangat said.
“We will have representatives to present our views. What we are saying is that the system might be good or might have issues here and there. But we want to ask that there must be involvement from all Kenyans,” he added.
Chelangat said that the issues they want addressed are among others that education must not be expensive noting that the current system was not favouring the poor in the society.
“We don’t want an education tailored for the elite but one that is learners-centered. This are some of things we want captured very well by the taskforce. The bottom-line is we have another chance to correct things and come up with a system that will be accepted by Kenyans,” he said.
The KUPPET secretary asked the TSC to decentralize the Teachers’ Professional Development (TPD) program to the counties so that teachers can join universities near to them.
“I wonder which criteria the TSC used to arrive at the decision to carry out the TPD program for the teacher’s work stations because the arrangement is not only inconveniencing them but also raising the cost of the trainings,” he said.
A section of Garissa leaders present led by Mohammed Dekow said the system should not be scraped but rather be improved and urged teachers to fully participate in giving out their recommendations.
The 49-member taskforce under the chairmanship of Prof Raphael Munavu was constituted to seek views from the public and recommend appropriate structure to fast-track its implementation.
Further they are expected to come with a framework on how CBC will be examined among other issues.
By Jacob Songok
