With the high unemployment cases peaking every day, there is pressure to find long-term solutions. CBC seems to be filling that gap.
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When CBC (competency-based curriculum) was introduced in the country in December 2017, the main aim was to make it a student-based curriculum, that promoted the engagement of learners as well as the development of self-skills. The engagement part was achieved all right. Parents had to be proactive in their children’s school work, helping them with their projects and assignments. Yeah, who can dare forget the uproar parents caused on social media after they were told to help their kids make a scarecrow?
It is understandable that parents feel pressured by this new curriculum. It is very demanding, not to mention it puts a not-so-nice dent in their wallets. However, there is an upside to CBC. Since it is more centred on building on a child’s strengths, it makes them more active and excited to learn. The learners have a chance to be creative in a class setting, something that the 8-4-4 system denied us. You see, 8-4-4 was like an unwilled sentence to military training. The only way to show you were a genius is if you had all A’s on your papers. Otherwise, you would be what the teachers used to call ‘dunderhead’. 8-4-4 wasn’t for the weak. It broke us, well, me at least.
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CBC on the other hand accommodates all learners, both book smarts and creatives. These kids are taught how to be crafty in such a way that they can create things from scratch. Looking at a future perspective to it, they are the ones who are being shaped to accommodate the job market. They are taught to be skilful, independent, creative, and critical thinkers- all these qualities, are suitable for people to set up businesses and become entrepreneurs, in turn reducing unemployment cases among young people.
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So CBC is not all bad. If we 8-4-4 babies had some of the basics of CBC integrated into our own curriculum, who knows? Maybe some of us would have been billionaires. No shade on 8-4-4 though, it made us resilient.
Ultimately, we need to put appropriate infrastructure and resources into this curriculum so that it works more efficiently and parents’ bank accounts don’t start screaming for help. Otherwise, it is a curriculum that has a bright future. That is if we ensure it has a future, to begin with.
