Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1214745,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1214745/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Peter Kaluma (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "There is lack of capacity for optimal operationalisation of the system given the state of infrastructure and personnel in public schools. The Competency-Based Curriculum is being operationalised across the country. In Homa Bay Town Constituency, you will find a single teacher who was recently recruited being posted in a primary school where a junior secondary school is domiciled. We all went to secondary schools. Secondary school teachers were trained in specific areas. If you were a teacher of Christian Religious Education (CRE), you taught CRE and History or English and Literature. We have a situation where a single teacher trained in English and Literature is posted to a school as the sole teacher in that secondary school and is required to teach 12 mandatory subjects and other two optional ones. You can imagine a teacher trained to teach History and who has never interacted with Mathematics is supposed to teach Mathematics, Physics, Home Science, Chemistry, Biology and Computer Studies as an option, and all the other courses. Because of that, parents do not have clarity on where the CBC programme is headed. For that reason, we have a situation where Standard VII pupils are well dressed in very beautiful neckties. They are also wearing trousers. In the same school, Standard VIII students are wearing very old shorts. We have a secondary school whose headteacher is a primary school teacher. We have a situation in the country where we are pretending to implement a programme. I am happy that Hon. Omboko Milemba is listening keenly. There is no meaningful learning that is happening in the country. There were previous attempts by this House to discuss the matter of CBC. However, each time the Motion came before the House, some Kenyans would go to court. We were, therefore, strangled by the issue of sub judice . I would like to request for a proper review if we are going to implement this programme. I do not have a problem with CBC if it is deemed fit for the country. But let there be proper facilities. We do not have facilities in primary schools where junior secondary schools are domiciled. We thought that all primary schools would be implementing this programme. In my constituency, not all primary schools are offering the curriculum. Some primary schools have been allocated junior secondary schools and yet, they do not have sister secondary schools. We have students who are just floating, not knowing whether they are secondary school students or not. It is chaotic! If we were bold, as Parliament, I would recommend that we have a serious re-look as the Government. For the first time, we have something affecting the education sector – a matter over which Parliament, as the House of representatives, has not properly deliberated on in terms of the policy and the framework governing it. If it were upon me, it would have been stopped for a review to be done. We did our studies under the old 8-4-4 system of education, although it was later diluted. By the time I was done with Standard VIII in the old 8-4-4 system of education, I had done Arts, and Crafts. We engaged in carving and making necklaces as beautiful as the one the Hon. Temporary Speaker is wearing. We did tie and dye, embroidery, patterns and we cooked millet ugali and chapati . We did agriculture and animal husbandry. We knew what fertiliser to apply on which crops, how to apply it and at what time. We knew how to make compost manure. We knew how to do mulching, propping and staking. I would look at any animal and determine the disease it was suffering from with a near 90 per cent probability. We knew how to castrate bulls. We could dehorn cows. We also knew that a cow needed a bull just by looking at it. We were so enriched such that you could finish your Standard VIII, do your KCPE and start practising agriculture. Over time, that was diluted. I wish we had listened to Kenyans before implementing the CBC programme. I do not know why it was rushed. It is unfortunate that we are where we are, but I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this matter as a representative of the people, so that these challenges can be put together. I believe the Ministry of Education is watching. Today, I would like us to talk The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}