Pressure continues to build on the Kenya Kwanza administration regarding the country’s education system. Ekuru Aukot, leader of the Thirdway Alliance Party, has recently joined the fray. Speaking on Thursday, September 19, 2024, Aukot criticized the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), stating that it is worsening the education system.
Aukot highlighted the financial burden of the CBC, noting that it has made education unaffordable for some parents. He shared an example of parents reaching out to him for bus fare to send their children back to school while still struggling to pay school fees. “One of the biggest investments in any country is to educate its people and to link academia to industry, and that’s how countries prosper. In the context of Kenya, it is getting worse by the day,” Aukot remarked during a panel discussion on a local TV station.
He also criticized the lack of clarity surrounding the CBC, pointing out that teachers, students, and other stakeholders do not fully understand the system. Aukot blamed the government for mismanaging the education system, leading to the current confusion. “We are in a crisis, and there is a failure in the government to manage our education system. The education is totally confusing. There was no training of teachers in this education system,” Aukot said.
Aukot called for the reintroduction of the 8-4-4 system and challenged the government to make education free. He argued that Kenya could fund education from nursery to university level through proper management and by eliminating corruption.
His comments come as the government works to address issues related to the CBC and the newly introduced university funding model. President William Ruto recently formed a committee to review the university funding model. Despite its aims to resolve problems in higher education, the model has faced resistance from students and parents, who argue that it places students in inappropriate funding bands, making university education more costly for some families.
