Setback as Treasury fails to allocate CBC funds
Mercy Mwai @wangumarci
The National Treasury has not allocated any money to finance Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) for Grade Four, Class Five and Six in the 2021/22 budget set to be unveiled today.
National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee chaired by Kieni MP Kanini Kega raised the red flag about failure by budget planners to allocate any funds to finance CBC.
The National rollout of CBC for PP1, PP2, Grade One, Two and Three curricula were done in January 2019.
“Further there is no allocation for CBC schools based assessment for Grade Four, Class Five and Six,” committee report reads.
But speaking to People Daily, a top Ministry of Education official who sought anonymity downplayed the matter, saying the monies could have been factored in other programmes such as teacher training.
“It is very unlikely that there is no shilling allocated to those grades. The money must have been factored in other areas such as the teacher training and recruitment. Teacher training, for example, has been allocated about Sh500 million.”
He, however, complained that the State department for Basic Education has had its budget reduced by Sh650 million.
In the budget, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), which is playing a key role in CBC implementation has had its budget reduced by Sh1.1 billion, a move that saw MPs who sit in the Education Committee raise concerns over the massive reduction.
Core functions
The Committee had in March regretted that KICD would not be able to pay staffers and run its other core functions such as curriculum development.
“For instance, KICD intended to train 50,000 teachers on CBC but the number has been reduced to 25,000, which is a blow to CBC implementation,” the report.
Under the CBC system, elementary education is divided into pre-primary and primary, taking two and six years respectively.
The roll out for Class Five will be in July followed by Class Six next year, who will in 2023 join Junior Secondary Class Seven that domiciles Junior Secondary School Classes Seven, Eight and Nine within the Basic Education structure;
The rollout of the CBC to Standard Five was initially scheduled to start in January when pupils currently in Grade Four were to transit to the next class but this has been delayed due to the interruption of the school calendar following adverse effects of Covid-19 that saw schools close for the better part of last year.
Learners who, in 2023, will be in primary school Class Six under the 2-6-6-3 CBC and those in Standard Eight of the 8-4-4-education system will concurrently transition to Junior Secondary Class Seven and Secondary Form One respectively
In April, the government started preparations to roll out the 2-6-6-3 curriculum to Class Five after KICD asked publishers to submit learning materials for evaluation.
KICD is also currently partnering with the Teachers Service Commission to train teachers how to handle the curriculum.
CBC has 14 subjects in primary school and the evaluation will entail a review of textbooks to be used.
New curriculum
A 26-member task force chaired by Kenyatta University Deputy Vice-Chancellor Fatuma Chege is currently overseeing the implementation of CBC.
The committee was appointed in June 2019 to advise the government on implementation of the new curriculum.
The lack of funding for the CBC raises questions on how it will be implemented yet the education sector has been allocated Sh509.2 billion in the 2021/22 financial year taking a significant portion of the budget.
Under the current estimates, Sh62.42 billion has been allocated as capitation to both public primary and secondary school learners, Sh2.5 billion will be spent on recruitment of teachers, Sh1.9 billion will be for school feeding programme while Sh4.24 billion will go towards public primary and secondary school infrastructure.
In addition, Sh4 billion has been set aside as for examination waiver for the administration of both the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations and Sh5.2 billion for Tvets.
