President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday, February 9, announced the creation of a new state department to oversee the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
He further directed the Ministry of Education to establish a strong monitoring and evaluation programme for CBC.
The Head of state made the announcement at the KICC during the launch of the Report of the Taskforce on Enhancing Access, Relevance, Transition, Equity and Quality for Effective Curriculum Reforms Implementation.
Prof Fatuma Chege who chaired the task force formed by Education CS George Magoha shared a summary of the task they handled as well as the proposals by the team.
With the proposal to scrap the national examinations at Grade Six, the taskforce gave an alternative that would involve continuous assessment of the students.
“At Grade 6, a learner will sit for a summative assessment that will cater for 40 whereas the rest (60%) will be from the continuous assessments,” Prof Chege stated.
She added that joining Grade 7 (junior secondary) would not be based on a one-off national examination.
The assessments would inform the transition from primary to junior secondary schools, hence addressing concerns about the criteria for admissions to the next level of learning.
“The process is as important as the results, hence we received submissions from Kenyans, conducted interviews, focused group discussions and reviewed literature among others ways of obtaining data,” she explained.
With the proposed system, continuous assessment in primary schools would be cumulatively compiled through annual reports.
“The focus will be on the continuous assessment that will capture diverse capabilities and competencies of learners to inform placement and transitions,” she added.
The Competency –Based Curriculum (CBC) taskforce had also proposed the scrapping of boarding in secondary schools under the new 2-6-3-3-3 education system.