The CBC Education System Has Been Tested And Turned Out To Be A Miserable Failure. The Country Is Wasting And Destroying A Whole Generation Under Broken CBC
By Ndung’u Wainaina
Worth Noting:
- Kenya is failing the largest segment of its young people especially those coming from rural and informal urban areas when it comes to education. Although the country has made significant progress in widening access to education, this has not translated into a quality education for all pupils.
- The education system continues to be dogged by stark inequalities. The result is many schools are faced with chronic problems of crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and poor educational outcomes, says International Center for Policy and Conflict, ICPC. Most public schools are inadequately staffed which is violation of Article 237 of the Constitution and Basic Education Act, 2013.
Kenya education sector especially in public schools is completely broken. The Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) is going to destroy an entire generations.
CBC is a failure and catastrophic. There is very little to show in terms of learning, as a result of poor quality learning outcomes for those in school in CBC education system. Further, the number of children dropping out of the school is devastating high.
There is significant stressed poor school management, inappropriate school curricula, limited and dilapidated infrastructure, lack of human and inadequate learning facilities have all made schooling unattractive to many children. Learning in Junior Secondary School (JSS) has virtually collapsed. Behind a facade of progress is a dysfunctional system facing myriad of challenges.
Kenya is failing the largest segment of its young people especially those coming from rural and informal urban areas when it comes to education. Although the country has made significant progress in widening access to education, this has not translated into a quality education for all pupils.
The education system continues to be dogged by stark inequalities. The result is many schools are faced with chronic problems of crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and poor educational outcomes, says International Center for Policy and Conflict, ICPC. Most public schools are inadequately staffed which is violation of Article 237 of the Constitution and Basic Education Act, 2013.
The main problem is that most of the money that is allocated to education is lost through inefficiency, which implies that the country could improve their primary education by just with their current levels of spending, by improving the efficiency of education financing.
Inefficient causes were not just impacting the quality of education but were contributing to the high repetition and dropout rates
The Kenya education system is broken and unequal. It has serious structural, institutional, infrastructural and managerial failures. “Kenya education system, characterized by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and relatively poor educational outcomes, is perpetuating inequality and as a result failing too many children, with the poor hardest hit,” notes ICPC Executive Director, Ndung’u Wainaina. He adds, “For Kenya to comply with both its own constitutional and international human rights obligations with respect to education, major change is needed urgently”.
The constitutional right to quality education includes having a school where learners are safe to learn and have the adequate infrastructure and facilities to do so. Kenya education system is almost an apartheid model. This has had net effect of perpetuating social and economic inequalities and limiting social mobility of children especially for majority poor.
The deliberate failure by the government to address the structural problems is not only a question of accountability deficit only. It has consequences for the life chances of millions of school going children and the future of this country.
It is crucial for the Kenya government to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment process across the country.
This will ensure that the government has accurate, comprehensive and reliable data informing its decision making in order to enable public investment for equal and fair enjoyment of the right to education in the country. Further, the government must develop and apply appropriate human rights compliant indicators regarding the implementation of the right to education as well as other economic, social and cultural rights.
National and County governments develop a comprehensive cooperation and partnership agreement on the functions of development and management of public schools at county level jurisdictions
Ndung’u Wainaina Is The Executive Director, International Center for Policy and Conflict, ICPC
