Latest guidelines on how to implement the Competency Based Curriculum at Upper Primary School level

The Ministry of Education has released guidelines to schools on how to implement the Competency Based Curriculum, CBC, for upper primary; Grades 4, 5 and 6. According to the circular dated November 7, 2019 and written by Dr Belio Kipsang (The Education Permanent Secretary), All schools will roll out CBC in Upper Primary in January 2020 in Grade 4, followed by the roll out in Grade 5 in 2021 and Grade 6 in 2022. The Ministry has already rolled out the CBC for Early Years Education, EYE; Grade 1 to 3.

Here are the guidelines to all Primary schools; both public and private:

SUBJECT: COMPETENCY BASED CURRICULUM (CBC) ROLL OUT; IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINES FOR UPPER PRIMARY GRADE (4,5 & 6)The Ministry of Education rolled out implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) for Early Years Education (EYE), covering Pre-Primary 1 &2 and Grades 1 to 3 vide circular Rel: MOE/CONF/G5 of 2nd January 2019. All schools will roll out CBC in Upper Primary in January 2020 in Grade 4, followed by the roll out in Grade 5 in 2021 and Grade 6 in 2022.All schools are expected to plan for the roll out in Grades 4, 5 & 6 based on the following guidelines:

1. Time allocation and lesson distribution;

• There shall be eight (8) lessons in a day
• Each lesson shall be 35 minutes
• The lesson distribution per subject will be as tabulated below:

Upper primary-Regular

S/N	LEARNING AREAS	LESSONS PER WEEK
1	Physical and Health Education	5
2	Mathematics	5
3	English	4
4	Kiswahili or Kenya Sign Language	4
5	Science and Technology	4
6	Social Studies	3
7	Home Science	3
8	Agriculture	3
9	CRE/ IRE/HRE	3
10	Art and Craft	2
11	Indigeneous / Foreign Languages (German/ French/Aarbic)	2
12	Music	1
13	Pastoral Program of Instruction (PPI)	1
14	Total Number of Lessons	40

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2. Intermediate Level for Special Needs Education (SNE)

This is the second level in the stage-based Competency Based Curriculum for learners with special needs who carrot follow the regular curriculum. These include learners with the following categories of disabilities:

• Severe intellectual disability;
• Deaf-blindness;
• Severe autism;
• Severe cerebral palsy;
• Multiple impairments;
• Profound disability.

Lesson Distribution at Intermediate Level

• There shall be six (6) lessons in a day;
• Each lesson shall be 35 minutes;
• The lesson distribution per subject will be as tabulated below:

S/N	LEARNING AREAS	LESSONS PER WEEK
1	Communication, Social and Literacy Skills	5
2	Activities of Daily Living Skills	5
3	Religious Education	2
4	Sensory- Motor Integration	3
5	Environmental Activities	3
6	Numeracy Activities	3
7	Creative Activities; Art and Craft	2
8	Creative Activities; Music	2
9	Psycho-motor Activities	5
10	Total Lessons Per Week	30

3. Special Notes

S/N	Area	Remarks
1	Language Policy	English shall be the language of instruction for all learning areas except for Kiswahili, Indigenous and foreign languages.
2	Other Languages	The Ministry of Education in conjunction with the Teachers Service Commission will identify public primary schools that will offer foreign and indigenous languages. Detailed implementation guidelines for foreign and indigenous languages will be issued to the identified public primary schools.
3	Home Science and Agriculture	These shall be allocated one theory lesson and a double lesson for practical activities.
4	Science and Technology	This shall be allocated two single lessons and a double for practical activities.
5	Physical and Health Education	This will be timetabled every day for each grade and be activity oriented.
6	Pastoral Programmes of Instruction	Shall be handled by a responsible member of a recognized religious faith within the school community and which is legally registered in Kenya.
7	Co-Curricular Activities	Are a compulsory facet of the formal curriculum and should be implemented as recommended for all learners.
8	Community Service- Learning Activities	Opportunities for Community Service Learning should be appropriately mainstreamed in all learning areas. Schools are expected to ensure that all learners participate in community service activities as guided in the curriculum designs.
9	Parental Empowerment and Engagement	Learning institutions should create opportunities for information sharing and involvement of parents/guardians in the implementation of CBC.
10	Values Based Education	School should ensure core values are incorporated in the learning process across all the learning areas in Upper primary.
11	Teacher Professional Development	All schools will timetable the last two lessons every Friday (5%) of teaching time for teacher professional development activities. During this period learners should be allowed to interact with digital devices, library work, radio and TV programmes aired by KICD.

 

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