The Ministry of Education has detailed how it will implement cost-effective measures in order to ensure that the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) transition would be a smooth process.
Speaking to the media, Principal Secretary of the State Department for Implementation of Curriculum Reforms, Fatuma Chege affirmed that the ministry's aim is to rationalise existing infrastructure and resources in order to meet the standards of the CBC curriculum.
She affirmed that schools with a low number of students would share infrastructure with those with extra classrooms and in close proximity. In other cases, the schools would be merged.
This would be through the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to confirm the proximity within the schools.
"Using the GPS to completely confirm the primary schools are in close proximity, this is a situation where some of them could be merged to optimally use the primary school infrastructure and create a secondary school using the other institution."
"This means the government would only invest in the infrastructure required in the secondary school," she stated.
Further, schools neighbouring technical institutions would be allowed to use the workshops for their projects, thereby saving funds in the process.
"Based on the fact that the Terms Of Reference had effective implementation, we had to make recommendations that demonstrate cost-effectiveness and rationale of resources," she stated.
The CBC curriculum has received backlash from a section of education stakeholders over the cost and complexity of the new curriculum.
However, Education CS George Magoha recently came out to defend the CBC, pointing out that the new system would help students develop expertise in their chosen fields and as well as become effective at the workplace.
