Why community learning will not take off soon

Pupils attending East Africa Character Development Trust lessons at Sports Arena Video hall in Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya. [Jonah Onyango/Standard]

Community-based teaching and learning might not be implemented this month.

The Standard has established that Parliament, ministries of Education, Interior, Health and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) are yet to undertake a number of critical activities before learning in estates and villages begins.

For starters, parliament is yet to discuss and approve the programme's implementation guidelines released by the TSC ahead of the national rollout.

Speaking in Eldoret, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha had said the parliamentary education committee, teachers’ unions and other education stakeholders sanctioned the concept of community-based teaching.

However, MPs who spoke to The Standard said they are not aware of the guidelines and that they must be involved in the process and approve the teaching model.

Already, sources indicate that a meeting between Education ministry officials and MPs is being scheduled to take the lawmakers through the guidelines and to validate the programme.

The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) must also develop a community teaching and learning manual for teachers before the programme is rolled out.

All education officials and teachers who will take part in the programme must be trained.

After registration of teachers, the TSC in consultation with the Education ministry is expected to assign teachers classes of not more than 15 learners.

This means that chiefs and assistant chiefs must identify and map out venues to be used for learning.

A meeting last week between the TSC and Education ministry officials agreed that open spaces in school compounds, churches and social halls may be used for the community-based learning programme.

Only after the venues have been identified will learners be assigned classes.

“Chiefs and assistant chiefs will allocate learners classes where they will attend lessons from Monday to Friday for between four to five hours,” said a ministry official.

During the meeting, it was agreed that all learning will be done at the zonal level.

This means that TSC, ministries of Education, Health and Interior officials at the zonal levels will coordinate the various elements of the community-based learning.

Meanwhile, all the regional directors, county directors, sub-county directors and curriculum support officers must be taken through training sessions ahead of a national rollout.

Teachers, who will be implementing the programme, will be the last to be trained.

“KICD must develop a manual or guidelines on how teaching will be conducted and this means that teachers must be inducted about the same,” said an Education ministry official familiar with the plan.

The meeting also agreed community-based teaching will not be geared towards covering the syllabus.

In the community-based teaching guidelines, TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said orientation and induction of teachers on learner engagement will be carried out through a multi-agency approach.

The Education ministry on the other hand said children will only be taught soft skills and ruled out conventional delivery of the syllabus curriculum.

Instead, children will be taught values, hygiene and sanitisation through a series of teaching and learning activities.

Generally, the TSC guidelines require teachers to develop daily activities on life skills such as weeding, cultivating, grazing animals, storytelling, debating, hygiene and other related activities.

“This noble concept was brought up to engage our children within the locality they live in,” said Prof Magoha.