President Uhuru Kenyatta has asked those who will get elected into office to proceed with implementation of the new curriculum.
Speaking during the Madaraka Day Celebrations held at Uhuru Gardens on Wednesday, the head of state said that even after his term expires in August, the government had already put up structures in place to ensure the rollout would not be stalled.
Uhuru defended the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) as a transformative system of education during his 10-year reign in leadership.
President Kenyatta says that the rollout of the curriculum that took place in 2017 has under-seen more significant milestones in the education docket contrary to the previous systems.
“The challenge of the day calls us to imagine a system that creates responsible citizens as opposed to subjects, a system that celebrates the creative potential of all our children as opposed to one that leaves them with labels of failure if they do not pass exams,” President Kenyatta said.
“A system that brings about freedom to be creative and innovative as individuals. This is the promise of the Competency-Based Curriculum and that is why in December 2022, the pioneer CBC Class, now in its sixth grade, will transition to Junior Secondary.”
Following the recent clash between the Education Cabinet Secretary, Prof. George Magoha and some political formations who are against the system, the head of state outrightly held that there would be no looking back in regard to the CBC rollout.
A section of political leaders and education stakeholders have been calling on the government to set aside implementation of the CBC saying it lacks proper basic structures.
“Given the manifest successes achieved in this short period of time, there is no turning back with respect to the Competency-Based Curriculum,” President Kenyatta noted.
He went forth to defend his regime’s consideration of the CBC, as a superior model to the 8-4-4 curriculum arguing that the latter focused on examinations which are not the aspiration of the current and future generations worldwide.
“With time, the 8-4-4 curriculum became inconsistent with the aspirations of our growing Nation, particularly because of its overloaded curriculum and its focus on rote learning and the passing of examinations as the ultimate goal of the system,” he said.
“As we began re-engineering it, we had to return to the foundational philosophy of education that: ‘citizens do not fail – systems fail them’. And if the systems are inconsistent with the aspirations of the people, they must be changed.”