The Ministry of Education is reaching out to stakeholders in a week-long programme to discuss the roll pout of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), a new system of learning in Kenya that replaced the defunct 8-4-4 system.

Since the start of its implementation in 2019, the CBC system has faced challenges including the availability of facilities, teachers, and books. Equally, the placement of junior secondary school pupils has been an issue of national debate.

"The dialogues are designed to engage all stakeholders in the education sector regarding the ongoing implementation of the CBC, including the progress, achievements and opportunities arising from the rollout," a notice in the local dailies stated in part.

According to the Ministry, these dialogues aim to discuss several issues in the implementation of CBC.

"Objectives of the dialogues are: to update stakeholders on the status of Competency Based Education Implementation. To provide a platform for stakeholders' participation in the validation of Transition Guidelines from Junior School to Senior School," the notice reads.

It adds, "to receive feedback from stakeholders on the implementation of competency based education."

The ministry will be engaging stakeholders starting Friday, March 7, to Thursday, March 13, across all 47 counties with Education CS Julius Migos presiding the launch of the dialogues at the Machakos People's Park, in Machakos County. 

At the moment, the implementation of CBC remains a matter of public debate with schools understaffed, career pathways blurred and parents asking authorities to come up with standard metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the new curriculum.

Early this year, Education Principal Secretary, Prof. Belio Kipsang' revealed that there were fewer classrooms to accommodate CBC pupils across schools and headteachers will have to improvise to "ensure that we don't disrupt learning".

"In some situations where the congestion will not allow we can have a multi-shift within the time where when there is a class doing outdoor activity then another group can be optimizing the classroom," Prof. Kipsang' explained.

At the start of the current academic year, the Ministry said only 13,500 classes were completed out of the required 16,000, an undertaking the government was carrying out in liaison with National Government Constituency Development Fund allocations.

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