Piloting of curriculum set to start

Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Director Julius Jwan and Kenya National Union of Teachers boss Wilson Sossion.(Photo: Boniface Okendo/Standard)

Pilots for the new curriculum begin in 470 schools across the country today.

More than 30,000 learners - from pre-unit to Standard Three - are targeted. The programme will run until the end of the term.

Already, 2,000 teachers have completed the second phase of training of the new 2-6-3-3 education system set to replace the current 8-4-4 system.

Curriculum developers from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and Ministry of Education officials are in the counties to monitor the exercise.

Julius Jwan, the KICD director, said the training was successful. He said more teachers had shown interest in the new curriculum.

Dr Jwan said continuous training of teachers would form the third phase of the programme that will be largely online.

"It will entail online preparation of materials so teachers can familiarise themselves with the content. We shall also introduce platforms for information sharing," said Jwan.

The Government is working with county governments to ensure that the process is all-inclusive. Some of those undergoing training are county officials expected to help evaluate the new curriculum.

"We have officers from every county participating in the training. We don't want to leave anyone out of this process because different experiences will give us a better idea," Jwan said.

National examination

Education reforms will see learners examined through continuous assessment tests as opposed to a single national examination.

"The system will focus on other abilities instead of just drilling learners to pass exams," said Peter Kega, the KICD team leader for Turkana and West Pokot counties during teacher training at Nasokol Girls' High School.

Mr Kega said special needs education was also anchored in the Basic Education Framework to cater for the needs of children with physical, hearing and visual impairments.

A report prepared after the classroom sessions will be used to fine-tune the curriculum and the process to ensure that it reflects the country's educational needs.

Phase one of the training invovled foundations of the curriculum to help teachers familiarise themselves with the new system.

The second phase was more technical as the teachers were taken through the finer details of the curriculum.