CBC-inspired rationalization of KICD’s instructional domains
The Ministry of Education was urged to reduce the number of subject topics taught at each stage of primary and secondary school by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms to prevent unnecessary repetition and overlap.
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development consulted with stakeholders and then took action to rationalize the subject areas in accordance with the recommendation, as required by Section 4 of the KICD Act.
On Wednesday, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu presented a report to Parliament detailing the reorganized classrooms as well as students’ readiness for upcoming examinations.
Machogu ruled that both PP1 and PP2 would continue using the same classrooms for their education.
According to the study, “there are currently five (5) learning areas at this level; therefore, they shall remain as they are until a review is undertaken.”
According to the CS, there will only be seven classrooms available to students in grades one through three in Lower Primary.
Including the Pastoral Programme of Instruction, he predicted the weekly lesson count will drop from 35 to 31.
The number of classrooms used by students in Grades 4 through 6 at upper primary schools will be cut in half, from 10 to 8.
“The number of lessons to be reduced from 40 to 36 per week including a Pastoral Programme of Instruction,” Machogu stated.
The number of subject categories in elementary school is being cut from fourteen to nine.
The Pastoral Programme of Instruction is included in the shortened weekly lesson schedule of 43.
There are now only seven classrooms available to seniors.
However, Machogu promised that after the Junior High phase was completed, the Senior High curriculum plans will be finalized.
After hearing concerns from many parties concerning the extensive cost of the curriculum and the abundance of learning areas, the Working Party suggested that KICD consolidate some of them.
KICD Chief Executive Officer Charles Ong’ondo admitted that some people were worried about the prospect of removing some topics and strands of study from the Competence-Based Curriculum.
According to Ong’ondo, some worried that students would be left with less alternatives when it came to selecting courses for their future careers if certain topic areas were eliminated.
Ong’ondo told Citizen TV that the institute was not eliminating learning spaces but rather rationalizing them in an interview broadcast that day (August 10).
Just to set the record straight, we are not eliminating any educational spaces in the process of accomplishing this, contrary to what some individuals may have heard. The two of us are trying to make sense of everything,” he explained.
The head of KICD explained that one method the institute is rationalizing the curriculum is by grouping together a number of learning areas that have common threads and subtopics.
“You look at a learning area in Junior School like health education and then you say there is a lot of overlap between some of the issues that we are dealing with in Health education that could be accommodated within the broader area of science,” he explained.
He argued that rearranging some classes to make room for others was preferable than eliminating them entirely.
“This guarantees that learners retain the essential skills they are expected to acquire. Ong’ondo remarked that this method ensures that students are still exposed to enough information to make an informed decision about which career paths to pursue.
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