Education Cabinet Secretary nominee, Ezekiel Machogu, on Friday, October 21, blamed the incumbent officeholder, George Magoha, for failing to successfully implement the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Machogu testified before the Appointments Committee of the National Assembly and said that the training sessions for teachers prior to the implementation of CBC were insufficient in providing the educators with the appropriate skills.
He claimed that as a result, teachers were unable to fully grasp the concepts of the new curriculum.
His solution-driven approach thus prioritised retraining teachers to master the CBC basics and improve the system, which parents, teachers and stakeholders perceive to be expensive and time consuming.
The CS nominee said that the cost of CBC will be reduced as a result of changes proposed by the task team examining the curriculum.
Machogu affirmed his cognisance of the concerns raised regarding the capital-intensive nature of the model.
Therefore, he is putting his faith in the advice of the task team set up by President William Ruto to resolve the major concerns that will be voiced.
“Once I get the recommendations of the task force, we will ensure that CBC is manageable. As of now, parents may not be able to afford certain requirements as indicated in the CBC curriculum,” Machogu convinced the Speaker Moses Wetangula-led committee.
“This (President William Ruto’s) administration, in particular, does not advocate for costly projects as education is supposed to be free and compulsory,” he added.
Machogu said that during his time in office, the Ministry of Education will work to improve the CBC assessment system so that it could better ensure a good standard of education for all students.
“I will regulate it to it see what instruments of measurement are used to ascertain the right measurement at that particular level. This is one of the areas that the task force can look at,” he noted.
The CS nominee reaffirmed the importance of exploring new revenue streams to alleviate the financial problems affecting public universities.
Machogu was also pressed for an explanation of how he plans to handle situations in which private universities were given placement preferences over public ones in the past.
“We will encourage universities not only to depend on the exchequer but to look for other sources of income. When the parallel programs were in place, universities did not complain over lack of funds,” stated Machogu.
