How city school is nurturing pupils via CBC
A private school in Kasarani, Nairobi county is making major strides using the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) to identify talented pupils and nurture their talents.
Kasarani Junior Academy also sponsors talented children from poor families in the estates, some as young as two years. One of the beneficiaries is four-year-old Elias Muthomi, who automatically calls out names of different helicopters and other aircraft by name when shown their pictures.
“He has a gift which needs to be nurtured and just being at home was not helping him. He is now fluent in English and some international bodies have even offered to nurture his ability abroad,” says Irene Kamau, the school director.
She says several pupils in grades one to three have talent playing piano, guitar, chess, drawing, dancing, modelling and painting.
“All they need is guidance to control their abilities through professional training. There are those who also are talented in pen and paper and after assessment, we have been amazed by what they have achieved,” she says.
Kamau says CBC is the way to go since not every child is good in academics, adding that schools ought to identify talent in pupils early enough and encourage them to aim higher.
“We need to remove the notion that we go to school so we can end up working in offices,” says the director.
Lunani Evans, a Kiswahili teacher at the school, says the pupils also learn CBC through Kiswahili language and are able to relate what they are taught.
Through visual aids such as computers, pupils have been more attentive in class and are relating well to the technology.
“CBC is all about seeing, touching, listening and feeling as well as how we teach the pupils. They even understand more than when we used to use chalk and board. We are producing better pupils today,” says Lunani.
In this year’s KCPE exam results, Kasarani Junior Academy produced one of the best students countrywide. Nigel Muhunyo Mbao scored 415 marks.
