Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion has asked members to boycott training on the new curriculum, that is scheduled to begin on April 23.
More than 100,000 teachers are set to benefit from a capacity-building training as the government takes steps to fully rollout the new system of education.
In a press statement on Wednesday, Mr Sossion explained that the competency based curriculum (CBC) reform exercise and the implementation process were conducted in violation of the law.
“The law requires an exercise of such a magnitude to have guidelines and a gazetted commission to anchor the entire process,” he said.
“Besides, the due process of reforming the content of the curriculum was never followed to the letter, hence making the entire exercise illegal.”
He also noted that the union’s annual delegates’ conference in December 2018 resolved that since the curriculum was not conducted in line with established norms, all teachers countrywide should boycott it.
ILL-PREPARED
The secretary-general also said that more importantly, a research conducted by Knut between January and March revealed the government was not fully prepared for the exercise.
He said there were no teaching and learning materials and also cited the teacher shortage and lack of standard infrastructure.
“We cannot admit an inappropriate and ill-prepared for learning system into our country,” he said.
Amid the criticism, however, the Ministry of Education has insisted that the exercise is on course.
Between April 23 and 26, a total of 68,490 teachers in lower primary schools and 22,830 head teachers will be trained.
Master trainers will offer support during the training.
