Nairobi – Secretary of Educational Interior Julius Ogamba has revealed that mathematics is mandatory in elementary and middle schools.
According to Ogamba, this was followed by extensive consultations with stakeholders, and the proposal to make it an option was removed.
However, he showed that art students learn a simplified version of mathematics.
“The majority of the stakeholders during the CBC dialogue were the view that mathematics should be mandatory in senior schools. We listened to your concerns and consulted the Kenya Curriculum Development Institute (KICD) to resolve that some form of mathematics is mandatory in two paths not STEM.
There have been protests against the proposal to designate mathematics as an optional subject with Kenya’s post-primary education teacher (Kuppet), claiming that such a move would undermine the country’s workforce development and educational standards.
This comes after the Ministry of Education recently announced that Maths is no longer compulsory for senior secondary learners under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), indicating a dramatic shift from the gradual 8-4-4 system.
In this system, students were taking English or Kenyan Sign Language, Kiswahili, Physical Education, Community Service Learning, that is four mandatory subjects.
Three other subjects were then selected from a pool of 38 options.
