The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) has announced when select learners under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) will be receiving new textbooks.
KICD announced that learners from pre-primary all the way to grade four will have reviewed textbooks when they report to school in January 2025.
This is after the Institute revealed that the process of reviewing CBC textbooks has already begun.
KICD Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prof. Charles Ong’ondo while speaking to the press on April 19, 2024, confirmed that publishers have already submitted manuscripts for review.
“The integration of learning areas at Junior School precipitated movement of content from one learning area to another but also content from one level to another. For example, in science, you may find that you had intended to teach certain content at grade seven which you now feel could move to grade six,” he said.
He revealed that the publishers submitted manuscripts after the institute invited submissions of materials for all learning areas in pre-primary I and II and Grades 1 to 4.
According to KICD, the process of rolling out new textbooks will culminate in reduced learning areas and shifting learners’ content from one level to the other.
Also Read: KUCCPS Opens Final Revision Window for 2023 Candidates
“That means as you move that content to grade six you may want to look at where it was sitting and say I think what was in grade six therefore needs to move at grade five and believe me that can go backwards up to grade four,” added Prof. Ong’ondo.
KICD Reveals New Books for Select Subjects
The institute further revealed that the new textbooks for pre-school will be in Creative Arts and Environmental activities, Mathematics activities, Language activities and religious education activities.
On the other hand, grades one to four will have new textbooks for Kiswahili activities, English Language Activities as well as Mathematics activities.
Learners in these grades will also receive new books in Creative activities, Environmental activities, religious education, and Indigenous language activities.
When explaining why a fresh distribution of books is necessary, the institute’s CEO noted that the last time the process happened for early-year learners was in 2019.
According to him, that timeline is long and may mean that the books have already been torn, worn out and or lost.
Also Read: Parents Want Cost of CBC Lowered – Report
In addition, apart from content, other reasons for textbook review are the increased number of learners and the need to review curriculum content after every 5 years as advised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“We are putting in new illustrations that have come up, even examples that we use, even texts that we have. That is the opportunity we also have to bring on board some of the pertinent and contemporary issues that have risen in the last four or five years. For example, climate change has emerged as a big matter now,” said the KICD CEO.
Deadline
The new books will be distributed to Public Schools between September 2nd and November 5th, 2024.
Also, the review of the Learning and teaching content is part of the recommendations tabled by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform.
The party which was introduced by President William Ruto included them among the proposals to have learning content reduced.
President Ruto in 2022 appointed the party through a gazette notice aimed at reforming the education sector in Kenya through submissions from members of the public and other sector stakeholders.
