As St. Martin CSA we are also taking the front-line in ensuring that our children are familiar with the new curriculum even as they continue with their rehabilitation.  Staffs at the rehabilitation centers have taken time to develop teaching and learning resources using locally available materials where children from our centers enjoyed putting the skills into practice. We hope that the skills acquired by the children as they undergo rehabilitation will help them to fit into the school curriculum once they are reintegrated back to the community.

Facts about the CBC curriculum

Is CBC – very expensive? – The solution is TALULAR

We believe that TALULAR (Teaching and learning using locally available resources) would work very well in Kenya. Teaching and learning material is important for children to learn and to understand the concepts. We often hear complaints from parents that the CBC is very expensive however there is a way of dealing with this challenge and this is through the use of locally available resources. The locally available resources are often used as counters for mathematics, but we could and should go beyond that. Together with the children teachers from our centers developed teaching and learning resources such as the abacus and place value boxes by using locally available materials.CBC – Requires too much time from the parents

Another concern from parents is that they feel forced to do the homework together with their children and some might be ending up by doing the homework for the child, because it takes less time or will look more beautiful. This is not what we should aim for. Parents should be only facilitators – let the ideas come from the children and just take up a supportive role. We help our children more if we challenge them. What about parents who are not able to read and write? Actually these parents might not be able to support their children in written exercises but they might be better in practical tasks! What about parents who really don´t have time because they struggle to make their living by working day and night? These parents have to find a solution for it because the education is a common responsibility of parents and schools. 

Challenges of children who are out of school and are to be reintegrated back

In the process of reintegrating a child who dropped out of school due to many reasons various challenges can occur.  The challenge comes in because registration for CBC happens only in grade 3 with no room for entry in later grades for children who miss out. The only option which remains is to skip some grades – which is impossible for most of the children.

A case in mind is Peter (name changed) who was admitted to our centre in 2020, when he was 14 years old. He had dropped out of school much earlier but was ready to re-enter at grade 5. However, when we reintegrated him with his aunt, the nearby school said it was not possible to re-enter at grade 5. He was given the option of re-entering at grade 3 in order to be registered in the CBC system, or to join class 7 of the 8-4-4 curriculum. He opted to join class 7 but was unable to cope causing him to drop out again. His aunt did not take it kindly. This caused problems with his aunt which made him go back to the streets. He now lives on the streets and has no hope of returning to school. There are many cases like Peter – we look forward to finding solutions for such kind of challenges.