Experiential Analysis of Public Universities Preparedness on Prospective Teacher Education towards Implementation of Competency Based Curriculum in Kenya

Abstract

The paper explored Public Universities' Preparedness on Teacher Education towards the implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in Kenya. CBC was meant to replace a three-decade old system of 8-4-4 to a new system of 2-6-3-3-3 in 2017 after a baseline study spearheaded by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) in 2016. The dynamisms of 21st century technology has pushed 8-4-4 graduate to a panacea of crisis on employability skills, incompetency and inadequacy on local regional and international job market. With the dawn of Competency-Based Curriculum in USA in early 1970s there came a paradigm shift in global education leverage. CBC come up with an emphasis on the attainment of competencies among the graduates in respect to applying knowledge rather than content quantity overload. CBC implementation in the developed countries, has indicated instrumental progress on graduates released in job markets at national and international context with a seamless integration of 21st Century skills. Many Third World Countries especially in Africa are struggling to maintain international standards economic, political and social transformations. The study utilized Descriptive Survey Research Design targeting the Lecturers, Bachelor of Education Students and Deans of Faculties in Public Universities in Kenya. The objective was tailored at finding out how Preparedness' the Public Universities were on Prospective Teacher’s as demanded for takeoff of CBC in Kenya. Simple random sampling technique was adopted in during data collection using Lecturers' Questionnaire, Students' Questionnaire, and Deans' Questionnaire. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that Public Universities were not only struggling in restructuring Teacher Training Programs but also and maximizing limited time lines to prepare competent teacher for CBC implementation. It is postulated that the Pedagogical knowledge about CBC is not fully maturated in Kenya. Public Universities' should reengineer Teacher Education and Pedagogical Approaches to bridge capacity gaps on Prospective Teachers being rolled out in to implement CBC.