Court Decides Fate of CBC in Case Challenging its Rollout

The High court has dismissed a petition aimed at scrapping the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC).

While delivering the ruling, the court said that no evidence was provided to support any of the grounds relied upon to stop implementation of CBC.

A three-bench judge comprising of Hedwig Ongundi, Antony Mrima and Antony Ndung’u also ruled that the government had already spent a lot of money and resources in the implementation of the curriculum.

Education CS Ezekiel Machogu was, however, asked to ensure that there is an amendment of the Basic Education Act and enact Regulations to domicile CBC in 120 days.

“It is evident that the Competency-Based Curriculum has already been rolled out the teachers have undergone training, and the government has already set out finances for the implementation,” the ruling read in part. 

The petition was filed by former Law Society of Kenya Nelson Havi who sought to have the new education curriculum scrapped saying it is unconstitutional and unlawful.

Furthermore, the court indicated that scrapping the education system would lead to job losses, as thousands of teachers are employed for Junior Secondary School, a product of the CBC system.

Also Read: Plan to Roll Out CBC in Universities Countywide in Top Gear

Also, the court ruled that there was no evidence showing how pupils would benefit if the system they have been studying under for six years were to be scrapped.

The case was first filed in 2021 where the initial petitioner in the matter was Advocate of the high court Esther Ang’awa but opted out of the matter on claims that she had been profiled by the state.

Her name was later substituted with that of Havi and documents before the court were subsequently amended to indicate him as the petitioner.

The Government introduced CBC in 2017 which aims at nurturing of learners’ potential, national values, integration of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Also Read: Parents Want Cost of CBC Lowered; Report

CBC was designed to expose students to their career interests right after joining junior secondary school and thereafter to choose their career pathways in senior secondary school. 

Four (4) main transitional points are envisaged in Basic Education under the 2:6:3:3 (CBC) structure.

The first is from Pre-primary to Primary School (Grade 1) and the second will be from Primary School (Grade 6) to JSS (Grade 7).

The third transition will happen from JSS (Grade 9) to SSS, (Grade 10) while the fourth will transition learners from SSS (Grade 12) to Tertiary Education or the world of work.

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