Successful implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum – CBC is still of great concern to numerous educationists. Alongside, some interesting questions have been posed through a side chat by one follower.

“I have noticed through your channel that some teachers re-enter school to re-align their knowledge after your seminars. Have you had difficult experiences from some of the teachers? How may the difficult experiences affect the implementation of the CBC?” enquired the follower.

Upon jogging my memory, I recalled quite a number of issues that may be of interest to most educationists. But first, it is important to realize that only 10% of teachers joined the profession by choice.

Another 40 – 50% of teachers became passionate about the career while at work. So, there is still a balance of 40-50% who don’t like the job at all. Imagine, similar statistics have been noticed when conducting seminars for other professionals, such as accountants!

All the same, during our seminars for teachers, some have revealed (through evaluation forms) that they will quit the career. Others have transformed their lives soon after interacting with our publications ( chech https://youtu.be/DD9R0e8BIbc?si=uXbXO9tbFu0yE5aa) In one case, one teacher never reported back to work after the holidays in 2021, based on feedback from the school principal. What could have led to this scenario?

Ideally, people who are dispassionate about their work end up unknowingly going through some form of punishment. The impact is however not easily noticed, since there are rewards attached to this experience.

Notably though, there is likelihood of such dispassionate professionals having challenged attitudes, about their roles and expectations too. One may wonder how our empowerment interventions are affected in such situations.

The truth is that we have reasonably positive experiences. This is proven by the fact that on a number occasions, we have been engaged to conduct seminars for students after executing those for teachers. We have also had some schools engaging us again and again for students’ seminars for different classes over the years. This is now we’ll documented.

However, one situation almost put us off balance one time. A day school based somewhere in Muranga County engaged us to conduct a seminar for the form 3 and 4 classes in May 2019. The seminar was supervised by the Deputy Principal as well as the guiding and counselling teacher. Each of the two kept leaving the hall at different times, but still resuming their roles.

At the end of the seminar, the students filled our usual evaluation forms for the same. Eventually, we dispatched the forms and the respective report to the school. Later, we sought feedback from the principal, who had been briefed by his teacher and deputy principal.

Sadly, the principal indicated that feedback was that they were not sure that the seminar was worthwhile. Why? They noticed very unfamiliar advice provided to students. Could this be based on the fact that only the principal had accessed the concept titled CAREER DYNAMICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY? Notably, this is what attracts schools to our seminars.

Meanwhile, the good news is that the students had in writing indicated full praise of the seminar. As such, our response was to advise the principal to wait for the KCSE results for the year, if the students are able to apply the knowledge acquired.

Eventually, the school’s mean grade shot from 5.9 – 6.6 upon release of the 2019 KCSE results. The students who qualified to join universities increased from 55 to 86 (56.36%). Incidentally, the school continued being a popular benchmarking station from schools in different counties.

In the 2020 KCSE results, the school achieved a mean grade of 6.2, despite the impact of the COVID 19 phenomenon. We still maintain good contacts with the then school principal, even upon his transfer to a larger school. Why share this?

For the desired achievements of the CBC to take shape, great efforts have to be put in place regarding taking teachers through the inevitable paradigm shifts. Need for emphasis on philosophical perspectives cannot be gainsaid, even as weighty technicalities, as well as infrastructure are considered. The concern is whether the entire teaching fraternity is ready for this framework.

Rgds

Mwangi Wanjumbi (MKIM)
Personal Empowerment Coach,
Speaker/Trainer on Strategy, Performance, Change Management and Leadership.
Seasoned Trainer of Trainers,
Competency Based Curriculum-CBC Architect,
Author of 1. KICD approved Career Dynamics in the 21st Century, 2. Living Beyond Survival:No More Tiptoeing in Life

  1. The 21st Century Student:Are You Creating The Future Today? Also, Retired 5 Year Monthly Strategy Columnist (2013 – 2018) for The SME Today Magazine. Phone 254722516210

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