Treasury Puts CBC in Danger as Senate Asks TSC to Explain TPD’s Financial Logistics
The Senate Committee on Education has warned that the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) could collapse owing to the treasury’s reluctance to release funds to schools.
According to the Senate Committee on Education’s chairperson Alice Milgo, the treasury has not disbursed funds meant for the CBC leading to a potential collapse of the new curriculum.
“The Senate fully supports the Competency-Based Curriculum because it will produce skilled children. However, funding it has not turned out to be a great challenge,” said Dr Milgo.
The Committee’s chair was speaking while in Naivasha where members of the senate committee met with stakeholders in the education sector to deliberate over the ongoing implementation of the curriculum.
The committee felt that the learners who will be most affected are those joining Grade Six in May 2022.
The committee’s members revealed that with the treasury not releasing the funds, more than 1,000 public schools in Kenya had not yet received learning materials meant for the Digital Learning Programme (DLP).
Milgo revealed that the Senate Committee on Education was pressing the program to provide learning materials for 1,119 public schools. This was to be achieved by summoning the Cabinet Secretary for the Treasury regarding the release of funds.
However, the Committee did praise the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) for its efforts that have brought about the success of the CBC so far.
The Teachers Service Commission was not to be left out either, with the Committee urging the Commission to explain the financial logistics of the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) training program which has been a hard bone to chew among teachers.
TSC has also been put under the microscope after the National Assembly mulled over conducting a review of the Commission’s mandate to limit it to just regulatory roles. The National Assembly’s Committee on Education wants TSC to be solely an employer, with a different body acting as the regulator.
The judiciary allowed TSC to proceed with the TPD programme as the case is heard. The TPD will turn the teaching landscape inside out, making it similar to that of the medical profession where the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union being a regulator while counties, on the other hand, act as employers.
Getrude Musuruve, a Nominated Senator, argued that the government should fund the training fully saying: “We support the TPD but the government should fund it fully as an incentive to the teaching fraternity.”
TPD is expected to last up to the entire duration a teacher will be in the teaching profession with each module lasting 5 years and teachers having to dispense with Sh. 6,000 every year.
Dr Musuruve who represents disabled people urged the government to allocate more funds to the Education Ministry to support students with special needs.
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