You have failed us and the new Curriculum must be implemented as planned- Private schools tell Amina

Private schools have asked the Education Ministry’s Cabinet Secretary, Dr Amina Mohammed, not to suspend the implementation of the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). Via a press statement released today, the Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) National Chairman, Mutheu Kasanga, wants CS Amina to rescind her decision to suspend the full implementation of the new curriculum. Appearing before the Senate Committee on Education, early this week, the CS said her Ministry had put on hold the rolling out of the new curriculum citing unpreparedness. Read full details, here: Roll out of the new curriculum put on hold-cs Amina announces

Teachers had welcomed the move by CS Amina to suspend implementation of the new Curriculum, sentiments that have been echoed by the Kenya National Union of Teachers, KNUT, Secretary General, Hon Wilson Sossion.

KPSA now wants the President, H.E Uhuru Kenyatta, to  intervene and solve the impasse.

Here is the full press statement from KPSA;

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RE: PRESS STATEMENT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW
CURRICULUM.
In the decision of the National Steering Committee on Curriculum reforms on 3rd January, 2018 Chaired by the then Cabinet Secretary for Education Dr. Fred Matiangi at KICD. Two things were agreed;
1. National Pilot be rolled out in all schools both Public and Private targeting PP1 to Grade 2 in 2018.
 This was to allow the stakeholders involved to work on improving the system and prepare for anchoring of the new curriculum in appropriate statutory requirements and develop policy document to guide National roll-out in 2019.
 The curriculum designs for these levels were released and subsequently curriculum support materials from the publishers were made available to school up-to grade 3.
2. Full National rollout of the new curriculum would be done in 2019 where it will cover PP1 to Grade 4. This pronouncement was intended to make all the parties involved to prepare and do all that may be required to support full implementation.
This CBC fiasco is a wake-up call for all educationists to come together and demand an education system which is credible, fair and which is delivered equally to all.

We strongly condemn in the strongest words possible the decision of Cabinet Secretary Dr. Amina Mohamed to ignore the call by the Critical Stakeholders in curriculum review process for a meeting to review and advice on way forward on the New Curriculum implementation from as early as February 2018. Severally meetings have been requested but no response has been forth coming. This made some us believe that all was well and that she meant well for Education of our country.

The decision to pronounce the suspension of new curriculum without the benefit of stakeholder’s consultation to assess its implications smacks of incompetence and is highly irresponsible, a situation that is extremely demoralizing and frustrating to the Parents and Children who cannot now
plan for their future with certainty.

Kenyan children and their parents deserve an explanation and unreserved apology from the leadership of the Ministry of Education for this unfortunate confusion. Nobody can close
their eyes and under rate the intelligence of parents in this critical matter. The collapse of implementation of the CBC seems to be a massive failure at the top line of the Ministry of Education. Firstly, the CBC has not been anchored in law and thus it can only be run as a pilot. Secondly, it has been apparent for the better part of the year that the donor funded TUSOME project was winding down and that there would be no grade 4 books from
that end.

KPSA as key stakeholders in Education will not accept anything short of full implementation on the new curriculum upto grade 3. We have been preparing our parents, Children and teachers for the new curriculum. We appreciate the fact that challenges will always be there but they should not stand in the way of implementation they can be sorted out as we move along.

 KPSA is therefore calling for the following;
1. The intervention of his Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Excellency the Deputy President William Ruto to save our basic Education Sector.
2. That the government immediately convenes an urgent meeting with Key Education stakeholders to fully address the looming disaster induced by the Ministry of Education .
3. Parliament through Education, Science and Technology committee, be immediately engaged for appropriate support on legal framework for the new curriculum.
4. Education Standards and Quality Assurance Council must be set up and operationalized urgently. It must be an independent body which can crack the whip on the MoE and TSC to deliver a uniform education standard to all Kenyan children.
5. That CBC was more than anything a change in teaching methodology not content. This for grade four can be done within 8-4-4 without necessarily having a system change and without losing the substance and depth so as to save the children who have been in the new curriculum in grade 3 and stand to significantly lose out if nothing is
done. Best interest of the child should be paramount in all decisions. The dance around the grade four curriculum designs and unpreparedness for the new curriculum is disingenuous. Government teachers in Public Schools have been trained. In fact it is the teachers in
the private sector who have had at times no access to training and are reliant on private arrangements for training.

The Kenya Private Schools Association has a duty to protect Education for all in this country and will not sit back and watch Kenyan children suffer from irresponsible decisions from officers whose duty is to facilitate and provide for their Education. The ministry should be advised to refocus on its internal Leadership and management weaknesses for the good of Education in our country.
Thank you
Mutheu Kasanga.
National Chairman
Kenya Private Schools Association

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Rolling out of the new Curriculum was initially slated for January next year, 2019.