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BY DOREEN SOITA
Following the introduction of the new curriculum in the Kenyan Education System, it led to a rush in publishing and distribution of books. This led to a new introduction of the syllabus as from grade 3 which was formerly known as standard 3 in the 8-4-4 system. The CBS system of 3-6-6 has brought about a great confusion in the education sector that made most parents and guardians in dilemma because they didn’t know which books to buy for their kids as the didn’t have information about the syllabus,
The piloting of this new system was rushed and brought about fake distribution of books in schools country wide. The publishers say that the introduction of this new curriculum was done in a great hurry and no consultation was made since they didn’t know what exactly to follow in terms of publishing books that were needed when schools reopened. This particular book below named the encyclopedia has got so many mistakes that are actually misleading the students. Mr Njoroge who is a book publisher and also owns a book shop gave his opinions saying that this has really brought about 50% loss to their businesses because after most parents and teachers realized that their books are fake they are no longer being bought and they have also experienced cases whereby parents are returning books they bought because they are no longer needed in school.
Some of the parents have ended up cursing this whole situation referring to it as a whole mess because they are all in a confusion as they don’t know which books to buy because they don’t have proper information on what kind of books to buy. Grace Machariawho says that on opening day with her son at school she presented the book she was asked to buy and what she was told in return was that the books were not suitable because they didn’t meet he education standards. So on her side she says that the school could have clarified forparents to know how to go about the purchase of these books.
I managed to speak to one of the teachers and she said that they didn’t expect the new curriculum was going to be introduced this soon and that’s why it brought about lots of misunderstanding between them and parents. Teacher Mary Wasike Precious Blood Academy says that this whole thing was a done in a rush and says next time more consultation should be done. She also says that they have not been trained on how to go about the new curriculum.
The Cabinet Secretary of Education Dr. Amina Mohammed was grilled on the issue of fake books and she admitted thatthe ministry procured books with multiple errors that cost the government Sh7.5 Billion.The ministry procured 33 million books to facilitate the new syllabus but when scrutinized, they had multiple errors and could not be used by learners. The CS admitted that indeed, some hiccups were anticipated in the pilot programme but the ministry would keenly look into avoiding such mistakes. She added saying it was a pilot targeting 470 schools in the country. She said this issue will be soon corrected
Education Cabine
Education Cabinet secretary, Amina Mohammed addressing journalst on the issue of fake books
But this has left the parents and the public at large saying this Our problem is that these books have the wrong goal. It’s not about education or value to our children, it’s about making money. When you are only interested in making money then what matters is the number of books you deliver and how fast you deliver. Making sure you deliver quality becomes irrelevant. I hope the Ministry can blacklist such publishers and give the Job to serious kenyans.
So the question is that why is the ministry not being keen on what its doing and there might be a problem in the ministry.
Edudemic 