Government Should Stop Running Around With The New Curriculum As Headless Chicken

The government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Education seems to have lost a sense of direction and now running around like a headless chicken.

The Ministry of Education had rolled out a piloting program of the new education curriculum of 2.6.3.3.3 that was aimed at replacing the current 8.4.4 system.

Upon the completion of the piloting program, the new curriculum was to be fully rolled out across the country in 2019, raising concerns among stakeholders over the short timeline given before the set full roll-out.

Text books printed for the new curriculum had some screaming mistakes that shocked even the publishers themselves. It was obvious that the curriculum was being hurried that all stakeholders had not been involved. It was not ready to be rolled out.

Education CS Amina Mohamed came out clean. She admitted that the curriculum had been hurried. That it was poorly planned and that it could not be rolled out in 2019. She said, the piloting program will be extended for one more year to 2020 before rolling out the curriculum fully. Many agreed with her.

One week after saying that the new curriculum cannot be implemented, Amina changed tune, a typical character of the Kenyan leadership. She now says that the new curriculum will be rolled out in 2019, one week away.

Who is fooling who in this new curriculum thing? Who is pooling the strings? Does the government know that even the 8.4.4 system of education was piloted for four years? Why are they trying to hurry in rolling it out?

The new curriculum is a joke. First, teachers haven’t been prepared for it. No teacher has been trained. Who will teach the kids? The Parliament is on a holiday till February. How will the new curriculum pass through Parliament to be approved? Has the sensational paper been prepared in the first place? Do we have a report as to whether the piloting program was a success?

Education is about the future. It is about building future generation. It should not be used for political gimmicks!