91,000 teachers to be trained for new curriculum

The Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will today begin a four-day training for 91,320 teachers on the new curriculum.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia will this morning launch the training expected to cost an estimated Sh500 million in Nairobi.

Prof Magoha promised to implement Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) as he addresses the challenges in the implementation identified by stakeholders.

According to confidential documents seen by The Standard, the training which will be carried out in all education zones across the country targets 68,490 teachers -three per school - with one for lower primary and two for Grade 4.

A total of 22,830 headteachers are also to be trained.

“The training will be conducted for both public and private primary schools by curriculum support officers (CSOs) and CBC champion teachers,” reads a letter sent to Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang by Macharia last Thursday.

Macharia said the training will be done through a smart cascade model, led by master trainers. About 172 master trainers, Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QASOs), CSOs and CBC champions were trained last week.

The 172 officers were drawn from the Directorate of Primary Education (12), QASOs (40), TSC (20), Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (60), Kenya Institute of Special Education (20) and Kenya National Education Commission (20).

“The master trainers will be distributed in 43 regions to train and they include 515 QASOs, 1,165 curriculum support officers, and 1,320 CBC champion teachers,” Macharia said.

During the training, teachers are expected to be taught the Competence Based Assessment (CBA) draft framework and they should be able to differentiate between CBC and CBA.

They will also learn about the Competence Based Assessment Framework (CBAF) based on the Basic Education Curriculum Framework (BECF), which is the blueprint for the curriculum reforms.

Teachers will also learn about authentic assessment, which is a quality assessment in which a learner is assessed in a manner consistent with the kinds of performances on the task and a rubric by which their performance will be evaluated.

In authentic assessment, learners are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills, thus making it interesting and meaningful, as it focuses on the learner’s performance and the quality of work.

They will also learn about rubrics to enable them apply a multi-assessment approach of a competence where the focus goes beyond academics to include assessment of such aspects as values and community service learning.