The Ministry of Education has said it will only continue providing textbooks for core subjects. The Ministry adopted a new books’ procurement policy whereby it supplies the textbooks directly to schools. In the past, funds meant for textbooks were wired into schools’ accounts for the principals to in turn purchase the books. “The Ministry will supply English Literature and Fasihi set books to Form three and four students in all the public secondary schools in 2019,” reads a note on the 2019 form one admission letter. The Ministry has been supplying textbooks for the core subjects like: Mathematics, English, Kiswahili, Chemistry, Physics and Biology.
Consequently, parents will have to buy textbooks for their kids in subjects such as: Agriculture, Business Studies, Computer Studies, Religious Education, History and Geography among others. Appearing at this year’s Nation Media Group Leadership forum (On Thursday 6th November), the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Studies (KICD) boss, Dr. Julius Jwan, advised parents to buy books for their kids; as the government will only provide core textbooks. “Government is buying core textbooks. Parents are free to buy approved books for their children,” said Dr. Jwan.
Dr. Jwan also said the KICD has developed a new Special Needs Education curriculum that has been developed by the Special needs expatriates. “For the first time we have a curriculum for special needs developed by people with special needs,” the KICD boss reported. The Ministry of Education is in the process of ensuring that Special Needs Institutions are headed by administrators with Special Needs knowledge. Read More Contents, here: Ministry of education and TSC to deploy teachers with specialized training to head special schools
Dr Jwan, also, said the KICD was ready for the roll out of the new Competency Based Curriculum, CBC, in January next year- 2019. “The concept of learning to learn is to prepare us for a world we do not know. We need an education system that embeds within learners the ability to adjust as the world changes. We call it learn to learn. The Competency Based Curriculum we have developed focuses on the head (cognitive) heart (Values and attitudes) and hands (skills) of the learner,” explained Dr. Jwan.
Jwan said the main hurdle to successful implementation of the new Curriculum is negative attitude towards it. “Attitude change is main challenge we anticipate with the roll out of New Curriculum. We need to put emphasis on creating awareness and on parents,” the KICD boss said.
Speaking at the same event, Education Ministry’s Principal Secretary (Dr. Belio Kipsang) said the government was working tirelessly to ensure the roll out of the new Curriculum becomes a reality. “The government has expanded the capacity for the Kenya Institute of Special Education. This is to ensure teachers handling children with special needs are equipped to do so. Teacher capacity building isn’t an event, it’s a process. We have been training teachers in readiness for the roll out of the new curriculum,” the PS said. “Kenya is ready for the New system of Education that will support Kenyans students to achieve their goals in both education and their daily work,” Dr. Kipsang added.
Dr. Kipsang further said the government had increased funding to the education sector and will ensure the funds are spent expeditiously. “In the year 2016, the budget set aside for Education was Sh426bn, this year, we’ve put in Sh442bn. The next financial year, we are putting in Sh468bn. This is 5.3% of our GDP, approximately 25% of the budget. he type of investment that we have been able to put into the education sector is fairly competitive at the level at which we are in as a country,” the PS explained.
The government pays school fees for all school going children under its free Education programme. Read more details here; 2019 fees structure for secondary schools in Kenya; day schools, boarding schools and special schools
