The Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology Union leaders have said they support the Kenya National Union of Teachers KNUT in opposing the roll out of the Competence Based Curriculum.
They said there hasn’t been sufficient public participation.
While addressing journalists at the UASU’s office in Kakamega, the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) Chairman Robinson Oduma and Kenya Universities Staff Union ( KUSU) Onzere Mulongo said they are r disappointed in the way education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha is handling the issues.
They said Universities have not been involved.
“Knut is right to say that there has been no sufficient public participation because university staff where the products of the CBC are likely to end up have not been sufficiently involved in public participation to give their views on the matter of the rollout of the program.So we are concerned and equally worried why the minister is running around launching trainings for staff in the ministry as well as teachers and not involving universities.” Oduma said.
He added that Universities are the citadel of education where we have experts on curriculum and professors who ideally are able to give an opinion on how best they think the new curriculum should be rolled out and on how best the system should work.
“Living out that critical mass of highly skilled and highly trained personnel does not board well for this Competency-Based Curriculum program. We are putting the CS on notice that we should be sufficiently involved in this matter before he continues” Mulongo said.
The leaders asked CS Magoha to sit down in his office and work instead of running around the country like a politician.
“In the very recent past all the CS has been doing is traversing the country like a politician and issuing edicts and pronouncements which are not helpful to this country. Magoha should know that he is not a politician but a technocrat and that is why he was appointed to that position. He should sit down and work hard to find solutions to the many predicaments that the education sector is going through.” Oduma said
The Union leaders added that the Education CS should consider the UASU collective bargaining agreement of 2017-2021 saying the implementation of the agreement has been delayed.
(KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion last week asked teachers to stop teaching the new Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) and instead revert to the old 8-4-4 system.
He has intensified his campaigns against the new curriculum urging Education CS George Magoha to divert his energies on more critical issues affecting the Education sector such as lack of enough teachers, poorly developed infrastructure and the training of teachers.