Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has affirmed that the Competency-Based Curriculum will continue despite the challenges it is facing.
Speaking during a joint media interview on Sunday, Gachagua said CBC is a difficult matter because it was rushed without proper public participation but a number of issues raised over the system are being reformed.
He admitted there is a huge gap as far as teachers are concerned but stated that in six months, President William Ruto’s administration has done something different by employing over 30,000 teachers.
He, however, said the initial plan was to employ at least 116,000 teachers in two years but the harsh economic situation has stretched the exercise to a period of five years.
“The Government has employed 35,000 teachers so that we can start bridging the gap and next year we will employ another 30,000. We had initially wanted to do it in two years, to employ the 116,000, but looking at the performance of the economy, we found that we cannot fill the gap in two years, it needs to be spread across five years. We have now rolled out employment of 35,000 teachers. That will be a big relief for our schools,” Gachagua explained.
Gachagua also notes that CBC was a paradigm shift in the country’s education system in terms of the curriculum, teachers and physical facilities and the country was not ready. “When we were campaigning, we had a session with all stakeholders on matters of education and they took us through the challenges of CBC and on assuming office, the President established the working party on education reforms.”
According to Gachagua, there are good elements in CBC but there are still quite a number of issues that require serious reforms so the government has agreed it will not do away with CBC but there will be tremendous reforms.
