Starting January 2024 the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) will reduce the number of learning areas for learners in the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
President William Ruto on Tuesday August 1, 2023 okayed the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) and ordered immediate implementation.
In the report learners under the new curriculum will have reduced subjects starting term one of next year. The learning areas will reduce from 9 to 7 for Grades One to Three.
Learning areas will also reduce from 12 to 8 for Grades Four to Six and from 14 to 9 for Grades Seven to Nine.
The number of learning areas will be 5 in pre-primary and 7 in Junior and Senior School (Grades Seven to Twelve).
So far KICD has only published the new number of lessons for Junior School (Grades Seven, Eight and Nine). KICD will release the new learning areas for other Grades in due course.
Below are the new compulsory and optional subjects in junor school. Two subjects i.e Health Education and Life Skill were dropped.
Also previously learners used to pick two optional subjects but now only one optional subject is to be taken.
COMPULSORY SUBJECTS
1) English
2) Kiswahili or Kenya Sign Language (KSL)
3) Mathematics
4) Integrated Science
5) Social Studies
6) Business Studies
7) Agriculture
8) Pre-Technical and Pre-Career Studies
9) Religious Studies Education
i) Christian Religious Education (CRE)
ii) Islamic Religious Education (IRE)
iii) Hindu Religious Education (HRE)
OPTIONAL SUBJECTS
10 In optional subjects a student shall take one subject
i) Visual Arts
ii) Performing Arts
iii) Home Science
iv) Computer Science
v) Other Languages (Indigenous Language, French, Arabic, German, Sign Language)
NOTE
Physical Education (P.E.) shall be offered to all learners as a compulsory to support the development of the Psychomotor Domain.
Does the country have enough P.E teachers
Computer Science is a crucial learning area. Why exclude it. Kenya must be serious
What’s the difference with 8 4 4 and Why make computer science optional.This is the problem of appointing old people who still live in the past to head such crucial commission,all roads lead to Uganda and makerere university,Junior school and senior school are terms used in Uganda education system.Was change of name even necessary.
They have started to amend it even before implementation. This tells you how it is important to pilot a curriculum.
Actually it is Abit disappointing when life skills is scrapped off,,it is the most important and which should be slotted 5 lessons per week,,this is because all the subjects are difficult to execute without Life skills,I have handled it in JSS and seen the changes and responsibility it has given to those learners,for those who do not know what life skills entail, some of the strands are:SELF AWARENESS,SELF ESTEEM, CRITICAL THINKING, CREATIVE THINKING, PERSONAL MANAGEMENT SKILLS, STRESS MANAGEMENT, NEGOTIATION SKILLS, CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS, AND many more,the scope covered by the this subject will trigger the learners to discover who they are and what they can do, kindly to the people concerned,this particular subject should be re considered.
As a teacher and parent, I feel for our children. This is very disappointing. Why would they make 4 optional subjects ( i.e in the current 8-4-4 system) compulsory then limit & deny them the most essential? Isn’t it obvious that Life Skills & Computer Science should be compulsory with the current generation? Why would both Social Studies & Religious Education be compulsory? Why would both Business Studies and Agriculture be compulsory? At least the Arts oriented students are fairly catered for though from experience, most tend to be good in Languages too. What happens to the Science oriented ones? Our Engineers to be? Our Zoologists? What about Surveyors? Architects? Someone please clarify or give guidelines on the same.
Amongst business studies, Agriculture, Social studies and religious education, a student should only choose two
Lifeskills should be compulsory. Otherwise we are just going back to the old 8-4-4 system!!.
Life skills irudi ASAP….
Life skills is a crucial one, thu should be re- considered.
REST IN PEACE THE KENYAN EDUCATION SYSTEM