The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education (KUPPET) has criticised the Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha for his plans to introduce Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) in secondary schools.

The union’s officials were speaking to members of the press on Thursday when they expressed their concerns about the readiness and capacity of secondary school teachers for the CBC.

The officials noted that the secondary school teachers are yet to undergo the training required to take up teaching Grade 7 and Grade 8 learners.

“Secondary school teachers have not yet gone through the training on how they will teach Grade 7 and Grade 8 learners. As I speak now, there is no teacher who is ready. They have not even been taught how this CBC will run,” a KUPPET official said.

KUPPET Secretary-General Akelo Misori said they were disturbed by the fact that Magoha is concerned about space instead of the teachers’ capacity.

“We are really disturbed that the Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Education is so much concerned about space as we implement the Competency Based Curriculum. This is something which goes above space,” Misori said.

He added that they wanted to see development in terms of the capacity of KUPPET teachers in preparation for Grade 7 and Grade 8 learners.

“We want to see action in development of capacity of our teachers in readiness for the Grade 7 and Grade 8 , which will follow their completion of Grade 6 preparation for that stage,” Misori added.

Misori also noted that the space for implementing CBC in secondary schools is not enough.

“The space which is going to be created in our secondary schools for the implementation of CBC is also not adequate because the Cabinet Secretary is thinking about creating classrooms without even the requisite infrastructure in place and does not take into account the capacity of the implementers of the CBC,” the KUPPET boss said.

Misori reiterated that no secondary school teacher has ever been selected to join any capacity-building workshops for CBC’s implementation.

“As we’re approaching that level, no teacher in secondary school has ever been selected to join capacity building workshops for the implementation of this and this is going to be a disaster, and we don’t want to wait,” Misori said.