By Jabali Digital
A Kenyan scholar has strongly criticized the country’s Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) or the Competency-Based Education (CBE), warning that the system has lost its original philosophy and risks producing a “wasted generation” if urgent reforms are not undertaken.
Professor Humphrey Oborah, the proprietor, African Talent Campus addressing the press at the Campus in Kisumu on Tuesday said the current system is a “distorted version” of what was initially meant to address exclusion, nurture talent, and reduce the financial burden on parents.
Oborah argued that instead of transforming learning, the system has retained the same elimination model seen under the 8-4-4 system, where examinations determine progression and access to elite schools.
“That's where we are now. You see parents being told that their children are going to go through pathways and instead of pathways you see a battlefield for national, county and whatever schools. We've lost the direction. We've not changed anything,” he said.
“The fight for national schools is still alive. People are not thinking about pathways. They're thinking about the school. So, if your child had a pathway or football you don't care about football. You don't care about music. You are caring about number one, which school is my child going to go. It is no longer about competence.”
Declaring that his life is in danger over his stance on the education curriculum, Oborah revealed that he has received threats warning him against publicly criticising the CBC/CBE, but insisted he would continue speaking out in the interest of parents and learners.
“It is sad,” Oborah told the press, “That instead of people embracing new ideas and trying to work with somebody like myself for the betterment of the country, I am now getting threats.”
He continued, “I got a phone call with a private number warning me not to talk about CBC again otherwise they will malign me, soil my name using major media outlets; local and international and if that fails, they'll use alternative means to make sure I don't talk ill about the CBC.”
Despite the threats, the scholar said he will remain steadfast in amplifying the voices of parents working hard to ensure their children are in school, with high hopes for a better future.
“I am saying to them, it is easy to threaten someone for a good idea but for the longest time since the dark education days, the same ideas are the same, the answers to the problems remain the same. To silence me or to guard me from saying the truth is not very helpful. What would be helpful is to work with somebody like me, to be able to solve those problems for the parents and those students whose future is at stake,” he added.
The matter has since been reported at Central Police Station in Kisumu under OB number: 24/19/01/26.
