KICD Prescribes and Vets Ten KCSE Fasihi and Literature Set books
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has replaced literature set books used in teacher training colleges and schools.
The curriculum development institute asked publishers to submit printed literary texts in English and Kiswahili for evaluation.
The current ones shall be replaced following their introduction in the year 2018.
The new set books to be introduced shall be used from May 2022 when the current Form 2 students will be joining Form 3.
The replacement of set books is in line with the norm whereby KCSE set texts are replaced or changed after a period of four years.
the process of replacement of the set texts involves a rigorous panel that includes quality assurance standard officers from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and officers from the Ministry of Education (MoE).
Teachers of secondary schools, tutors of TTCs, and dons of universities in both Kiswahili and English disciplines form part of the evaluation team.
Before the set texts were approved, the KICD received a total of 142 books from 39 publishers after the timeline of submission began in March 2021.
The submission consisted of 52 set books for English and 90 Kiswahili set books.
Among the ten books under the listed category and among those vetted and prescribed are:
- A Grain of Wheat – by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
- The Successor – by Francis Imbuga
- Perched Earth – by Elieshi Lemo
- Edited – by Chinua Achebe
- The Floods – by John Ruganda
- Julius Ceasar – by William Shakespeare
- Dilemma of a Ghost – by Ama ata Aidoo
- Maru – by Bessie Head
- Silas Marner – By George Eliot
- Time and River – by Zee Edzell
For literature in English, submissions consisted of a novel, an anthology of short stories, and a play. On the other hand for Kiswahili (Kiswahili literature), tamthilia (play), riwaya (novel) and Hadithi Fupi (short stories) were the areas for submission.
There was stiff competition as expected since the set book market is one of the most lucrative in the industry, with sales guaranteed over a period of four years.
Pirates also target set books due to the huge market for them as they are used in schools and colleges
The 751,150 candidates who sat for the KCSE in 2020 for instance provided a market for the set books approved during their time.
This year, the publishers have reason to smile as the government decided to buy the set texts and this will mean pirates will have a hard time finding a market for their books.
The Ministry of Education has also been buying and supplying textbooks directly to schools since 2018. This decision has been praised for its once-exclusive 1:1 student-to-book ratio. But it has also seen some bookshops closed over the same.
“The literary texts should be submitted for secondary Form Three and Four students and teachers trainees in teacher training colleges. The materials presented for evaluation and granted approval will be used in Kenyan education institutions,” said KICD CEO Charles Ong’ondo.
Publishers were given up to noon of March 18to submit their set texts and were required to pay a fee of Sh. 140,000 as a submission and evaluation fee.
Those who are successful and will be needed to make any corrections shall be required to pay a figure of Sh. 100,000 for ‘corrections inputting’ according to the guidelines that the KICD released.
The institute expected that the evaluation could be completed by the 6th of April. After that, the Curriculum Technical Committee would vet the evaluation report up to April 13. However, this was not possible.
The KICD Council shall give formal approval of the committee’s recommendations and then announce the results this month.
There were allegations of corruption in the selection process before but the KICD introduced a blind tendering where manuscripts are submitted as spiral-bound copies bearing no way of identifying the publisher, title of the book, or the author.
Publishers are also in the process of preparing materials for Grade-Six in the competency-based curriculum (CBC).
However, publishers complained that the time allocated for the preparation of the books was no enough.
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