The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has trained 60,000 secondary school teachers on the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) who are going to handle the pioneer CBC class in Junior Secondary School (JSS).
The Chairperson of the Commission Jamleck Muturi revealed that around 229,000 primary school teachers have been trained on the CBC.
“As we prepare for the rollout of the CBC grades 7, 8 and 9, headteachers will no doubt bear the greatest responsibility to these learners. When history is written, your contributions will have an indelible mark on the first and subsequent cohorts of these learners. Let us do a good job for the prosperity of this nation,” the Chairman stated in a speech that was read on his behalf by the TSC Director of Human Resources Dr Julius Olayo in the recently concluded Kenya Primary School Heads Association (KEPSHA) annual conference.
The conference was held at the Sheikh Zayed Children’s Welfare Centre in Mombasa.
The TSC Chair lauded the CBC stating that the curriculum’s depth and scope are going to equip learners with the ability to cope with a world that is facing complex business, political, scientific, technological, health and environmental challenges.
“While I am not preempting the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, I wish to say that innovation and knowledge will drive the world economy. As Headteachers, you are therefore the change agents who will implement the necessary educational reforms of the 21st Century.
“We urge teachers to be competent and ensure seamless implementation of Junior secondary. We have already trained curriculum support officers who will also impact the implementation process,” said Muturi.
The TSC boss also had advice for teachers as he asked them to familiarize themselves with technology advancements so that they can deliver quality learning and be able to handle technology.
He added that Kenya, just like other countries across the world, is recovering her education service from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said that TSC will continue supporting teachers following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is worth noting that we lost teachers, principals and Secretariat Staff to COVID-19 in the course of their work. But against this backdrop, we have triumphed and brought the education sector back to full recovery. As a Commission, we will continue supporting you to recover from the impact of the pandemic in order to enable every learner to access quality education,” added the TSC Chair.
Muturi was in agreement that the last two years have been difficult for learners, teachers and Headteachers who were put through condensed school terms in order to recover the time lost when the government had closed schools for almost a year in 2020 to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.