An expert in the competency-based curriculum has shed light on the grey areas surrounding the system of instruction that has seen a select few remain sceptical about its efficiency eight years since its rollout.
Maurice Aketch, author of several CBC books and current deputy principal at Makini Junior School, says the adoption of CBC was the best decision Kenya ever made in bettering the country’s education standards.
He said sufficient sensitisation is all that’s needed to change the mindset of its critics.
The 2023 cohort of Std 8 learners was the last to sit the KCPE exams as the Ministry of Education works on phasing out the 38-year-old 8-4-4 curriculum.
Critics said the system’s emphasis on good grades encouraged learners to cram concepts instead of seeking to acquire knowledge thereby flooding the job market educated but unskilled.
Aketch said CBC uses a holistic approach of moulding learners beyond being book smart, something that encouraged cramming under the 8-4-4 as learners competed for nothing but grades.
“We are no longer grading but assessing the competencies, the skills and the values that a child has acquired through a school process,” he said.
Aketch said this is achieved using different tools like projects, community service learning, portfolios, questionnaires and research among other scales of measurement.
This, he said, ensures skills and competencies a learner has acquired are accurately captured and their contribution to societal development is determined based on competencies, skills and values.
He said unlike the 8-4-4 grading system where a teacher instructs and lets learners demonstrate their level of understanding during one-off written exams, CBC is a progressive hands-on learning process that allows learners to demonstrate their innate abilities with very little teacher input.
“There’s something called scaffolding where a complex concept is made simpler through steps; a learner is given paint, a brush [and told] try and paint we see how you are painting. The teacher or facilitator withdraws instructions as the learner progresses so by that you are able to assess the skill acquisition,” he said.
“When he starts he could be struggling but when he continues through scaffolding, he is able to see.”
Aketch said in cooking for instance, the now being phased out 8-4-4 system would have a classroom learn in one or two 40-minute lessons about ingredients and recipes whilst CBC makes it a whole project that takes even a month of actual cooking until learners get the task right.
“And you cook yourself as the teacher supervises, that’s a skill that we never had [in 8-4-4]. Then there is also soil conservation for Grade 8 where you are supposed to make a model farm which we were never taught in 8-4-4. We do that through community-based learning; we send them out to go and demonstrate this particular skill they have learnt.”
This way of learning accords learners the opportunity to transfer classroom learning to real-life situations, Aketch said.
“I teach mathematics and for example when I’m teaching about conversion of meters to kilometres, initially in 8-4-4, I would tell you 1000 meters make a kilometre but you don’t know how I arrived at that because the teacher was the sole source of knowledge. Here, we take them outside, have a 100-metre sticks [then] join them together from this point to that point so that they can conceptualise that abstract that they heard.”
Among the reasons the government chose to phase out the 8-4-4 system was because of its emphasis on academic achievement at the expense of holistic development, as well as its reliance on standardised testing as the primary measure of student success.
Aketch said CBC is the best cure to this decades-long drawback on Kenya’s education system as it prepares learners with desirable practical skills required in the job market.
Aketch dismissed the notion that whereas CBC instils practical skills, it overlooks the aspect where learners are also expected to be book smart.
He said the curriculum content has been revised over time to suit the needs of learners such that they can compete with their peers globally.
“When we started, after three years we realised that the content was too much so it was revised.
“When it comes to exams, they are doing five papers not subjects, with eight learning areas; one paper is a combination. For example, Science and Technology is called Integrated Science, Agriculture and Nutrition and a little bit of computer in one particular paper.”
Creative Arts and Sports and Social Studies comprise creative arts within which there is music, art, social studies, religious education and sports.
Aketch said the learning areas are examined as one paper but taught separately.
“In Junior secondary, there will be five or maybe six papers of nine learning areas. Primary school teachers have been going through a lot of training in CBC.”
Aketch commended the retention of Junior School learners in primary schools saying it’s the best learning environment for learners of their age.
“These learners are not mature enough to join the seniors because the seniors are at the peak of their socialisation in terms of psychological growth. These learners are still toddlers so to speak so they will not cope well in that kind of environment.”
Aketch appealed to the government to continually retool teachers to improve their teaching skills in CBC and undertake sufficient public sensitisation to quell scepticism about the medium of instruction.
"All the stakeholders and the public should be sensitised on the nitty gritty of the goodness of CBC because a country will develop because of its education system."