MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

UNIT NAME: THE ROLE OF THE FAMILY IN THE MODERN

SOCIETY

UNIT CODE: BCP4207

STUDENT NAME: MOHAMED BASAS MUHUMED

REG NO: BECD/2018/40585

LECTURER NAME: TERRY KIRANGU

TASK:
Q1). Discuss the critical roles that the parents are expected to play during this time of
covid-19 and cancellation of the 2020 academic year till 2021 (10 marks)
Q2). Discuss 10 expected contributions that the new competence based curriculum
(CBC) is expected to bring about in Kenyan education for its students and society (10
marks)
Q3). Describe 10 challenges being faced in the implementation of the CBC in the
primary level by the teachers and ministry of education (10 marks)
Q1). Discuss the critical roles that the parents are expected to play during this time
of covid-19 and cancellation of the 2020 academic year till 2021 (10 marks)

 Maintain communication with the teachers

Every parent should develop a habit of keeping constant and continuous
communication with the teacher(s) who engage with their children. With remote
learning in place, it has become much easier for families to have one on one contact
with teachers either through their work emails or work phone numbers. Use this time
to schedule a virtual meeting with the teacher to catch up with your child’s progress.
This not only shows your child that you care but also assures the teacher that you
value what they are doing and that you are committed to supporting the benefit of
your child.
 Teach their children life skills.
The parents have enough time with their children in teaching them different skills of
life. For example for those who have gardens, they can be taught gardening and
different
 Improving parental capacity to support the academic success of their children.
Parents should empower their children academically by providing home based
learning by teaching them by themselves or through e-learning for those in capacity to
do so.
 Encouraging children to conduct their studies at home.
They should counsel and guide their children in generating time tables and even peer
education through online groups. The students will at least refresh what they have
been taught in school and even go ahead of where they had reached in studies. This
might be a challenge since they might use their phones to get into inappropriate sites.
 Share your personal school experiences
Parents should always create time to interact with their children and share their
experiences both positive and negative during their days as students. Feel free to share
their moments of glory as students and those painful moments that shaped them into
the people they are. Such stories make children feel easy around their parents and will
no longer look at them as super humans that only lead perfect lives devoid of
mistakes. This will, in turn, encourage the child to open up and share any academic
challenges that they are encountering.

 Monitor their academic progress

Now that the children are learning from home, parents have so much visibility into the
lessons that happen in class. Spare some time and discuss lessons or assignments
given. This is also a great opportunity to go through their academic reports with them
and prompt questions on their performance on areas they need assistance on.
  Appreciate positive outcomes
Students who perform well will maintain their good results if they are regularly
appreciated. Parents should devise a way of appreciating their learners every time
they bring improved results home. This will continue to motivate them to work hard
at all times and maintain high expectations. However, parents should be careful when
rewarding good performance. They should make it very clear to their children that it
is not a bribe to maintain good performance but rather an appreciation for doing well.
 Listen to their needs and desires and support where necessary
Trying to rule your children with an iron fist may work only when they are still young
but upon attaining the adolescent age, this may be a difficult road to travel. Parents
should be open to their children and must demonstrate the commitment to supporting
them in whatever way possible. Create opportunities for them to bring their thoughts
onto the table and see how they can support them. Children who feel listened to by
adults also grow up to be people who are considerate and accommodative of others.

Q2). Discuss 10 expected contributions that the new competence based

curriculum (CBC) is expected to bring about in Kenyan education for its
students and society (10 marks)
Curriculum reform is necessary if we want to improve the quality of education in
Kenya. However, curriculum reform should be based on the needs of learners and
society and on best international practices and standards. It is an orderly, planned
sequence in which curriculum specialists, teachers, university lecturers who have
undertaken advanced academic studies in curriculum development and other local
education experts, including the Ministry of Education professional staff who have
extensive experience in curriculum development, implementation and evaluation,
assist in conducting a needs assessment identifying a problem, finding a solution,
conceptualising the required curriculum, planning and designing a reformed
curriculum, pilot-testing the revised curriculum on a small scale, then implementing
it nationally. The current implementation of the CBC will have great contribution,
for the benefits of the students and the society. These contributions include;

To Reduce School Dropouts: Competency based curriculum will help the Student

engagement during their learning which makes the learners to be simulated the
learner’s interest in school. This curriculum will reduce the dropout of the learners
because it is learners based curriculum. This engagement will impact students'
academic performance and behaviour as well as how they identify with school and
feel that they are cared for and respected for their teachers and the school rules and
regulations.
Competency based curriculum will enhance the attention, curiosity and interest of
the children during learning hours. Teachers used child-cantered approach to deliver
the content to the learners in order to capture the learner’s interest and their
individual needs. Therefore, this curriculum will promote to reduce the dropout rate
of the learners particularly the girls because this curriculum will enhance the ability
of the learners.

Student Engagement: - This competency-based curriculum (CBC) is one of the

strongest outcomes during the implementation of competency-based education in
schools and this will have increased student engagement. Students are highly
engaged in the material because they have ownership over their learning. They are
empowered because they have control over when they were and how they learn.
This competency-based curriculum (CBC) also promotes individualized learning
and accommodates a variety of learning styles making it a truly personalized
experience. This experience increases engagement because the content is tailored to
each student and more relevant.

Flexibility of learning approaches: - Competency-based programs are very flexible

as their structure depends on the individual learner. There is no rigid timetable in
these programs, no set semesters, and no classes. Instead, the students are guided by
their learning and control when and where they complete projects and assessments.
Competency-Based Curriculum is also flexible in that it allows students to enter a
program at any level where they are given credit for previous experience.

Self-paced: - The focus of competency-based curriculum (CBC) is on the final

outcome and not the journey. This enables students to control their pacing because
they are not confined by the planned learning activities. As soon as a student feels
they can prove mastery and they can take an assessment. Students receive credit and
start on the next material as per the plans of the competency-based curriculum
(CBC). Moving as slow or fast as they wish the students are able to complete a
degree when they are ready. This is a huge benefit for independent and adult
learners who may be working towards a degree around other scheduled activities.

Affordable to all levels of societies: - The cost of competency based programs varies
by institution and program for the student to learner this competency based
curriculum. Many institutions have created competency based curriculum programs
precisely as a strategy to increase learning and to lower the cost of education. In
many institutions have the tuition depends on how long it takes a student to
complete their education courses. The learner progresses through the materials that
are less expensive the competency based curriculum. Since this curriculum started to
offer by the schools are eliminated school fees and also resulted to lower tuition fees.

Skills-based: - Competency based curriculum is a skill-based curriculum for the

learners in order to get graduates who are productive and skillful. Competency
based curriculum is a learner cantered which can offer real-world skills and
competency development. Competency based curriculum Programs are designed
around competencies that are needed for a particular career ensuring that the
material is relevant. The CBC enhances the outcome of the students who are ready
and have expertise in their chosen fields.

The Student will work on their own pace: - Competence based curriculum is
curriculum that will engaged the learners to work their own pace. This will lead the
student to master the content of their lesson and to strengthen the competency-based
training of the student which will lies the ownership of learning into the students
and let them meet a certain big-picture understanding of their lessons. Therefore;
student simply don’t just move on with a big gap in their understanding but rather
they work at their own pace until they prove their mastery of contents. They are also
assessed right exactly when they are confident to demonstrate their competencies,
exactly in a way that fits them and in a way that captures who they really are.

Helps students to gain experience: - The objective of a Competency-based

curriculum is to impart knowledge, skills, value, and experience to the students and
make the learner’s skillful person in the future for him to help himself, his family,
and the entire nation. The competency-based curriculum is to higher the experience
of the learners for them to become effective leaders in their chosen field. Beyond
accomplishing grades what is more in demand now is gaining real-life skills.

This curriculum will address the students' critical learning gaps, knowledge, and
skill, competency-based schools proactively challenge the age-old practices and
bring alternative systems in place to promote success for all the learners.

It reflects the needs of the market: - Competency-based curriculum reflects and

meets the immediate needs of businesses and professions who have completed their
courses. Hence students are either already working and receive advancement within
the companies or if unemployed are more likely to start their business once qualified
and completed their grades because they have enough skills and knowledge to start
their business. This curriculum will enable learners to study at their own pace and
work independently.

Critical thinking and problem solving: - Competency based curriculum helps the
students to foster their Problem solving and critical thinking ability to use
knowledge, experience and to reach effective decision making ability. This doesn’t
mean the students need to have an immediate answer but to able to think on their
problems and analyze their problems in order to find possible solutions. This ability
will help the students to develop a well thought out solution within a reasonable
time frame. However, Competency based curriculum will make students skillful so
that they become students who have value and greatly help their society. The ideal
students can think critically and share their thoughts and opinions to other hence
used good judgment and make decisions.

Q3). Describe 10 challenges being faced in the implementation of the CBC

in the primary level by the teachers and ministry of education (10 marks)
Insufficient materials provided by the ministry to schools such as books and learning
materials. The materials distributed to public schools have to be shared by learners for
effectiveness.
Lack of finance- due to the hurry in the development, piloting and the roll out processes, a
lot of monetary resources are required.
All teachers were taught but some resist to change. They are very familiar with the old
methodology and some feel more comfortable about keeping the same teaching
documents from the past years, instead of adapting them to the new methodology.
Insufficiency of learning and teaching materials about CBC in schools as another
hindrance to the implementation of the new approach. Some of the available materials are
still in electronic copies, making it not very practical for every user.
Parents financial constraints in providing additional materials which affects the learning
process. Most of the additional materials are to be provided by parents most of whom
cannot afford. Parents should provide in Manila paper, crayons, files, paints and plaster
sine. It is hard to explain to them because they believe everything is free.
Understaffing makes the teachers to strain a lot. The ratio of teacher to student is too high
making learning a challenge since not all learners can interact one on one with teachers.
Some schools infrastructures are so poor. This makes some learners to be taught under
tree or jigger infested classrooms. In remote or populated areas there maybe more than 70
learners in a class. This challenges implementation of CBC a challenge.
A Competency-Based Curriculum requires a different environment and resources that
may not be available in some community and government schools.
Most of teachers were not provided with in-service training as a strategy to improve their
teaching-learning techniques and hence most of them were still employing old approaches
or traditional-learning-methods.
Lack of support from parents and the local community on issues related to curriculum
implementation. Some activities engage learners with the community with which some
communities do not support the teachers and the ministry in this.
Short time for teaching practice for CBC curriculum. The new CBC curriculum took short
time for teachers to prepare adequately in the implementation in schools.
 The ministry received opposition from some teachers and parents on the new CBC
curriculum. This generated negative perception in some teachers, learners and parents
which becomes difficult in implementation.
Error in the proposed syllabus. The books printed in speed to take on the curriculum had a
lot of printing and content errors due to lack of enough editing and approval time.

REFERENCES

Mount Kenya university module notes on the role of the family in the modern
society
Benokraitis, N.V. Marriages and Families. 7th Edition, Pearson Education, Inc., 2011
chun, y.-j., and macdermid, s. m. (1997). "perceptions offamily differentiation,
individuation, and self-esteem among adolescents." journal of marriage and the
family 59:451–462.

Gilroy, Paul "Identity Belonging and the Critique of Pure Sameness" in Gilroy, Paul (2000)
Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line, (Cambridge, Mass.:
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press), Ch. I.3, pp. 97–133