Wandayi: Ruto must give clear guidelines, long-term solutions for CBC implementation

National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi has accused President William Ruto's administration of not having a clear plan to implement Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).

Wandayi said the government should not use children from "poor families" to experiment with the CBC.

"No child should be discriminated against on account of his/her financial background and the government has the duty to ensure that every child has access to free and equality basic education.

"The UDA government must, therefore, cease experimenting with the children of the poor and rise to the occasion and give clear guidelines and long-term solutions for the implementation of CBC that ensures that the learners are best equipped and are as competitive as their counterparts in private schools and, indeed, the world at large," he said in a statement to newsroom on Monday, December 5.

He further blamed the President for seeking to overturn "every decision" made by retired President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration.

"The Kenya Kwanza Government in its now characteristic style, is hellbent on clawing back the gains made in the education sector and creating unnecessary confusion.

"It seeks to reverse the decisions by the Kenyatta administration in which the current President played an integral role up to the last day, and from which he cannot distance himself.

"We wish to refer the Ruto administration to Article 1 of the Constitution which states that all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya who may exercise it directly or through their democratically elected representatives," he stated.

Wandayi said the CBC program was approved by Parliament and its implementation plan should not be changed midway.

"It is, therefore, an affront to the sovereignty of the Kenyan people when out of bile and grandstanding, an arbitrary reversal is made on the decision made by Kenyans through their elected representatives in the past administration that ushered the new competency-based curriculum (CBC) for and on behalf of the people.

"Indeed Article 53 (1) (b) of the Constitution confers to every child the right to free and compulsory basic education. When CBC was introduced, there was a general understanding and indeed a government policy that learners who complete primary education in Grade 6 would transition to Junior High School for 3 years. The transition was expected to be to another institution, a graduation from primary school," he said.

Ruto's task force on CBC

He also said primary schools are ill-equipped to handle Junior Secondary School learners.

"It was therefore expected that institutions, where these learners would transition to, would be identified, set up, and equipped for a smooth transition and also provide quality learning in that tier of education.

"Stakeholders were equally guided in preparation and some have invested heavily and would be negatively affected by the unexpected reversal in this policy, which is highly absurd, given that the primary schools are ill-equipped in terms of infrastructure of classrooms, laboratories, and facilitators who need to be retooled to competently train the learners," he added.

At the same time, the Ugunja MP said the 49-Member Working Party on Education Reform membership lacked proper representation and, therefore, its report should not be relied upon.

"The 49-Member Working Party on Education Reform that was largely drawn from the developers of the Kenya Kwanza manifesto was tasked to look into the challenges facing CBC in a bid to strengthen it and provide solutions to the existing and foreseeable challenges.

"In its formation, the taskforce clearly lacked representation of key stakeholders in CBC who had engaged with the model and who would have afforded it vast knowledge in areas that posed challenges in its implementation such as heads of primary, secondary and private schools, curriculum developers and media fraternity.

"It was the expectation of all Kenyans that the taskforce would provide guidance on the key areas that posed the greatest challenge to CBC and its implementation," he said.