Kenya’s Competency-Based Education (CBE) system is facing fierce criticism from education experts, with top academic figures warning of a complete breakdown in its planning and execution.
Renowned educationist and President of the African Federation for Gifted and Talented, Prof. Humphrey Oborah, has described the curriculum as “a catastrophe in the making,” asserting that the system was fundamentally flawed from the outset and has deteriorated further due to poor leadership, inadequate resources, and lack of a clear strategic framework.
Speaking on Saturday at Kisumu Girls High School during a Career Day event attended by students from various secondary schools across the region, Prof. Oborah delivered a damning assessment of the government’s handling of the curriculum rollout.
“The government is doing guesswork, and the result of guesswork is chaos,” said Prof. Oborah. “That’s why at the beginning, teachers mistook it for home science and asked children to bring eggs and chickens. That’s not education—that’s confusion.”
Prof. Oborah, a key contributor to the original Curriculum-Based Competence (CBC) model before it was renamed CBE accused the Ministry of Education of lacking both historical context and technical understanding of the system.
“If you ask the current Minister of Education to define CBC, he can’t. There’s no architectural origin in their approach. Together with the late Prof. Odhiambo, we were part of its foundation. What is being implemented now is a distortion,” he stated.
He underscored the government’s failure to assess and nurture competencies in young learners, especially at early developmental stages.
“Competence is a subset of talent, and talent is measurable using defined tools and methodologies—tools which the government does not possess,” said Oborah.
Highlighting the ongoing confusion over Junior Secondary School placement, he pointed to systemic disarray within the education sector.
“The inability to properly place Junior Secondary learners reflects a deeper crisis. This curriculum started with a problem, it is now in crisis, and the country is on the verge of educational disaster,” he warned.
Prof. Oborah called on the government to admit failure and take urgent corrective action.
“It’s time to set aside political pride and accept that the implementation is wrong. There’s no shame in correcting course.”
Beyond structural failures, he urged educators and parents to rethink traditional academic pathways, emphasizing potential over grades.
“Not everything is about academics. Some of the highest earners globally didn’t follow conventional academic routes. Cristiano Ronaldo, for instance, doesn’t have a university degree, yet he’s one of the wealthiest athletes in the world,” he said. “It’s about discovering one’s potential and learning how to build it.”
The professor’s remarks come at a time of growing national debate over the effectiveness of CBE, with many stakeholders now demanding a complete audit of the curriculum’s design, rollout, and long-term viability.
