How CBC Subjects Will be Merged Under New Education Reforms
As part of a new curriculum, the government will implement recommendations to reduce the burden by merging five primary school subjects.
Home science, health education, and integrated science will be combined into one subject in elementary school.
The proposal might make the three learning areas separate subjects.
Under the current Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), both social studies and life skills are taught as separate subjects. The curriculum designer is considering combining the two.
This is in response to a recommendation by the Presidential Working Group on Education Reforms that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) reduce the number of learning subjects.
Lower primary subjects will be reduced from nine to seven, upper primary subjects from 12 to eight, junior high subjects from 14 to nine, pre-primary subjects from five to seven, and senior high subjects from seven to five.
Charles Ong’ondo, the chief executive officer of KICD, stated that the subjects to be consolidated have related concepts.
Prof. Ongondo mentioned that, upon conducting a thorough analysis, they had come to realize that certain concepts were interconnected.
This led them to consider merging these concepts, specifically in the realm of integrated science and health education. Instead of maintaining them as separate subjects, the intention was to consolidate them into a single subject, integrated science.
Similar to primary school, KICD is considering merging home science and health education into an integrated science curriculum.
However, the curriculum developer proposes that the ninth subject be elective; the subject chosen will hinge on the learner’s aptitude.
“What could have been compulsory earlier will now be optional,” Ong’ondo said.
Currently, Junior Secondary school students in January will pursue 14 subjects, of which 12 are required.
According to the curriculum design of KICD, students have 45 lessons per week, with each lesson lasting forty minutes.
As optional subjects, English, Kiswahili, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Health Education, Pre-Technical and Pre-Career Studies, Social Studies, Religious Education, Business Studies, Agriculture, Life Skills Education, Physical Education/Sports, and Foreign Languages (German, French, and Mandarin) will be added to the indigenous language.
A review team at the institute is currently coming up with ideas for the subject that will become optional.
He further shared that there was a team currently convening at KICD to evaluate all the learning areas within junior secondary education. Their focus was on identifying learning areas that still existed as independent subjects and determining which of these could potentially become optional.
He disclosed that the quantity of resources a subject requires will have a significant impact on whether or not it will be made optional.
Regarding the selection of subjects to be made optional, the issue of resource availability also came into play.
He mentioned that they were contemplating certain learning areas that held significant potential but might not be feasible to implement in all schools across the country at the present moment.
As the CBC has not yet reached the senior secondary level, Ong’ondo stated that the recommended modifications will not have a significant impact on the learning areas.
In addition, he mentioned that the original plan called for seven topics similar to those that the presidential team had suggested.
Ong’ondo stated that they will balance out the content as they integrate it into the existing subjects, regardless of whether this will dilute the quality of certain subjects.
How CBC Subjects Will be Merged Under New Education Reforms