The Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) is the new curriculum that is being rolled out by the Ministry of Education. In accordance with these new textbooks have been developed by publishers to meet the needs of this new curriculum.
However, not all the books currently available in bookshops have been approved for use in schools.
For that reason, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) in partnership with the Ministry of Education have released a list of approved books in the 2018 Orange Book that school heads and parents are supposed to pick from when buying textbooks for the new curriculum.
In addition to this, all the approved books include a footnote on the cover indicating they’ve been approved by KICD.So when in doubt, check for this footnote on the book’s cover.
Classes Covered in the New Curriculum
Currently, the curriculum only covers the early years of education which consists of the Pre-Primary and Lower Primary.
The Pre-primary education is made up of two classes:
- Pre-primary 1 (PP1)
- Pre-primary 2 (PP2)
Lower Primary Education on the other hand is made up of three grades:
- Grade 1 (G1)
- Grade 2 (G2)
- Grade 3 (G3)
Approved Textbooks Lists
A list of all the approved books for each of the grades can be found by following the links below:
- Pre-primary 1 Approved Textbooks
- Pre-primary 2 Approved Textbooks
- Grade 1 Approved Textbooks
- Grade 2 Approved Textbooks
- Grade 3 Approved Textbooks
All the titles also include a teacher’s guide that can be bought separately.
New Curriculum Activty Areas
The pre-primary education has the following subjects which are now referred to Activity Areas:
- Language Activities
- Mathematical Activities
- Environmental Activities
- Psychomotor and Creative Activities
- Religious Education Activities
Primary education contains the following activity areas:
- Mathematics Activities
- English Activities
- Kiswahili Activities
- Literacy Activities
- Environmental Activities
- Hygiene and Nutrition Activities
- Christian Religious Education
- Hindu Religious Education
- Islamic Religious Education
- Movement and Creative Activities
Each
of these subjects has a list of textbook titles from various publishers
that have been approved by KICD for study with. Schools are expected to
pick from this list only.
As a result, the choice of
book will differ from school to school and therefore parents are only
supposed to buy what their children school has instructed them to buy.
