On Sunday, July 31, Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha begged with the next administration to give him additional time to finish building Competency-Based Curriculum classrooms.
Speaking during the Namgoi Secondary School’s inauguration of its CBC classrooms in Nandi county, the CS pleaded with the new administration to give him more time to finish the undertaking.
“We intend to complete most classrooms by election time, should there be a small balance, since am not a politician, and you can judge me on that, only God knows who will be the president, I don’t know and whoever comes in will be my commander in chief.
I hope that before that person comes in he should allow me to finish the remaining classrooms,”
He further claimed that he stands guided if he is allowed to ensure that the classrooms are completed until the new government is formed
“I stand guided if am allowed to continue I shall continue to ensure that the classrooms are completed, if am guided to go and rest, then I will obey the command and go to rest because I work at someone’s command,”
After 6500 classrooms were completed in phase one, 3500 classrooms are supposed to be erected in phase two, however only 500 classrooms have been created so far.
The contractors received praise from the CS for making every effort to build the classrooms in under three weeks. With the exception of a handful in the Western and Nyanza regions, he stated that the majority of the classrooms are nearly finished.
According to the most recent data from the Ministry of Education, during the double intake in January, 2.57 million students will be enrolled in Form 1 and Grade 7.
The government is in a race against time to prepare the more than 1.2 million students who are currently in Grade 6 and will enter Junior Secondary next year.
The CS gave the teachers the assurance that the government would make sure that the classes were ready by the end of the year because the pioneer junior secondary school wouldn’t start until January 2023.
William Ruto, the Kenya Kwanza flag-bearer, has voiced reservations over the CBC, pointing out that the curriculum needs to be revised to take into account the views of parents, teachers, and education stakeholders.
The Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) has drawn criticism from some officials associated with the Kenya Kwanza coalition, who have threatened that Ruto’s administration may scrap the new curriculum and go back to the 8-4-4 that is currently being phased out.
