CS Magoha Appoints Charles Ong’ondo as New KICD Boss, Teachers Report to Schools

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has appointed Professor Charles Ong’ondo as the new Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) director.

The new KICD boss who has been a lecturer at Moi University will replace the outgoing Joel Mabonga who had been in office since February 2020, following the resignation of former KICD Boss Juan Julius.

Prof Charles Ong’ondo is an associate professor in English language teacher education. He belonged to the department of curriculum, instruction, and educational median at Moi University.

He attended the UK’s University of Leeds in 2009 where he earned his Ph.D. Degree specializing in masters in philosophy and a bachelor’s education degree from the University of Moi, where he has been teaching.

He has more than fifteen (15) years’ experience of teaching as a lecturer and another ten (10) years’ experience teaching as a secondary school teacher.

He is also the executive director of the African Network for Internationalization of Education, which is a non-profit making non-governmental African network. The network is committed to the advancement of high-quality research on the continent of Africa. It is also a member-based association that serves its members, their organizations, and others that are involved in understanding internationalization.

His appointment comes amid the ongoing implementation of the new competency-based curriculum (CBC) that will phase out the current 8-4-4 system.

The changing of the curriculum in schools and shifting to CBC was mooted by former cabinet secretary for education Fred Matiang’i who is currently in charge of the Ministry of Interior.

Teachers Report to Schools

Teachers throughout the country have reported to all basic education institutions. School heads had been earlier directed to be present in schools by their employer (TSC) and today teachers have reported to schools as they prepare for the reopening of schools. They have decided to do it at different times throughout the country with a majority of principals notifying their staff to meet at a timeframe of between 9:00 am and 12:00 noon.

They are expected to discuss among other things the strategies on how students and pupils will be welcomed back to school, the curriculum, and how it will be implemented with changes in the academic calendar and the implementation of measures provided by the Ministry of Health to help curb the spread of COVID-19. These measures include social distancing, sanitization, and the wearing of facemasks.

What will be quite the discussion is actually how these measures will be implemented with there being the situation that the desks being manufactured have not yet been disbursed and classrooms in many can barely meet the social distancing measure that has to be met to avoid COVID-19 infections.

Besides, teachers will also discuss their responsibilities both as a team and as individuals in case innovation and creativity is needed in this process. What to be done in case of infections on staff members, non-teaching staff members and students will also be discussed. Every infection case will have to be dealt with immediately upon showing symptoms in line with those of a person having COVID-19.

Challenges reopening may face may vary depending on the infrastructure and the number of students enrolled in schools. Despite this, we hope all stakeholders involved in this reopening process will take all measures provided by the Ministry of Health seriously to ensure everyone is protected against infection once schools reopen.