Place teachers at centre of CBC ideals
Centrality of the teacher in the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) cannot be overstated. It is now even more enhanced with the declaration that learners will be graded to join Junior Secondary School (JSS).
The Ministry of Education has declared that there will be a complete transformation on how placement of learners to JSS will be done, starting next year.
According to the ministry, placement under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) will be a departure from the past, which was squarely based on learners’ performance in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) Examination.
Although the ministry says it is in the process of developing the guidelines to streamline placement criteria under CBC, it is now clear that it will be based on a series of assessments.
The mode of assessment will entail a combination of teacher-administered formative assessment in Grades 4, 5 and 6 and a summative assessment to be administered by Knec at the end of Grade 6.
The proposed weighting is 60 per cent for formative and 40 per cent for summative assessment. The summative assessment is prompted by the need to allow learners from across the country to access schools, which have superior infrastructure and a culture of good performance, thus enhancing equity.
The Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) says it has developed the Competency Based Assessment Framework to guide education stakeholders in assessing and nurturing acquisition of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes.
Knec also states that it will not only develop new assessment tools and partner with schools to enhance access but also come up with quality controls to ensure credibility of formative assessments at the school level.
The council develops School Based Assessment tools and uploads them online for teachers’ use after which schools will download, administer and score the tools.
Once an assessment is done, teachers are expected to upload the classroom assessment scores on the Knec portal.
Questions of trust have, however, emerged on the teacher driven assessment and whether it will be fair since there are no external examiners but the ministry has assured that tutors are well trained to strictly adhere to guidelines to be issued by the exam body.
It is, therefore, critical that teachers who will be undertaking the classroom assessment to live the CBC dream, nurture the talent of learners and award the scores they have worked hard for.
Let the CBC goal, which focuses more on the learners’ individual ability, be actualised.
