Description
ABSTRACT
Competency Based Education (CBE) stresses the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to be applied by learners instead focusing on what learners are expected to learn about in terms of traditionally-defined subject content and on grade and yearly curriculum schedules. Competency-based curriculum (CBC) is designed with a view to help learners acquire desired knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to enable them cope with life challenges. The main focus is placed on how competent each student is in the subject and not how much knowledge they have acquired in the subject. CBE adopts a learner-centered pedagogy, formative and authentic assessment approaches that emphasize the development of competencies and application of knowledge in real life context. This paper is based on library research and seeks to review literature concerning the CBC in order to come up with various lessons to help in the Kenyan education. A brief analysis of Kenyan adoption of CBC under the system of 2-6-3-3 unveiled in 2017 to replace the current 8-4-4 system which has served Kenya for the last 32 years has been done. The adoption of 2-6-3-3 has received attention because it provides an opportunity to reflect on the end of an Era in Kenyan education system where examination has been the center of the sector. The paper will focus on the potential and prospects of CBC for Kenya based on the experiences of CBC in other countries. Illustrations from some countries will be used to point out why CBC will be useful in the development of the Kenyan education.
Keywords: Primary schools, Curriculum, Competencies, Competency-based
