Thousands of boarding institutions may soon be closed down and all learners placed on a day scholar module if a new proposal by the task force working on the new education curriculum will be adopted.
In its recommendation, The Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) taskforce wants boarding in secondary schools be removed under the new 2-6-3-3-3 education system.
The team furthers that boarding schools be left for several institutions to admit learners across the nation who pursue different pathways in senior secondary.
The team is also proposing the scrapping of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination after the 6th year. Alternatively, the task force wants the exams done after the first of the end of junior secondary.
The assessment will then assist in placing learners in various senior secondary schools.
From that point, another examination will be taken at the end of the senior secondary which will help place the students in tertiary institutions.
Under the CBC, pupils are expected to spend 2 years in pre-primary, 6 years in primary, 3 years in junior secondary and another three in senior secondary school.
Before the pandemic, the new education system that was rolled out by the Ministry of Education mandated a 17-year-stay in school as opposed to the 8-4-4 system which totalled 16 years.
The major discrepancy between the 8-4-4 system and the new CBC system is that the years’ learners spend in school are being restructured to 2-6-3-3-3.
All learners take 2 years of Pre-primary, then 6 years of Primary, and then 3 years of Junior School. If you pass the Grade 9 exams at 15 at the end of Junior School, you can then proceed to 3 years of Senior School.
University under CBC will be just three years instead of four.
It is however not clear how the last group of 8-4-4 students (current class five) will join form one at the same period that the CBC pioneers (current Grade 4) will also be enrolling for junior secondary school.
