Education CS George Magoha is facing a challenge in the scrapping of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) to allow a smooth transition into the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Under the CBC, learners are expected to spend two years in pre-primary, six in primary, three in junior secondary, and another three in senior secondary school.
Although Grade 6 final examinations have been scrapped off, the ministry is grappling with the question of how students will be allocated in secondary schools.
It is also not clear how the last batch of 8-4-4 students (current class 5) will join form one at the same time that the CBC pioneers (current Grade 4) will also be enrolling for junior secondary school.
A team that has been appointed by the CS to discuss the matter are expected to issue their final verdict before the Christmas break, regarding whether KCPE will be scrapped off or not.
The team is expected to advise on policy as well as legal issues that are required to be undertaken for the curriculum to be effectively implemented.
At the same time, they will discuss the working relationship between the national and county governments on the implementation of the pre-primary education curriculum.
According to the Standard, the committee has since been instructed by Magoha to draw criteria that will be used to post children in secondary schools.
He also stated that he needed a transition roadmap of how secondary will be split into junior and senior secondary.
“As a committee, we hope to address the sticky issues and once we are done, we will write a report before the term ends,” a member of the committee stated.
Prior to the pandemic, the new education system that was rolled out by the Ministry of Education mandated a 17-year-stay in school as opposed to the 8-4-4 system which totaled 16 years.
