In a previous thread someone asked about my teaching in the institution I am. As it stands now, we have 2 examining bodies in Kenya i.e KNEC (Kenya National Examinations Council) and CDACC (Curriculum Development, Assessment & Certification Council). Many colleges and TVET institution are moving from KNEC to CDACC especially government institutions. CDACC is being pushed by the government and all public institutions are supposed to embrace it. Many people dislike it because it has too much paperwork especially those courses that require practicals like engineering because at some point you are needed to have given your students 3 formative assessment (CATS, in CDACC they are not called CATS but formative assessments) and also 3 practicals and this is very hectic because now imagine you have a class that has 100 students and you have to mark all those answer sheets for Formative assessment 1, 2 and 3 and after that you also have to mark the practicals 3 of them. They aren’t given at the same time but now it reaches a point where CDACC officials come round institutions checking if you have done that. Right now we have CBET (Competency Based Education Training) where a student is tested practically on what he/she has learnt in theory, basically it’s a continuation of CBE formally CBC. In simple terms, kama unafunza mwanafunzi automotive, he/she has to practically do the process of maybe installing vehicle braking system practically while you are there standing as the trainer (in colleges and TVETS we are called technical trainers, teacher ni ya hisgh school na primary, in university wanaitwa lecturers but you get the point), you assess the students as they do the process one by one until they are fully competent. In CDACC, we don’t have Distinction, Credit or Pass No. We have Competent or Not Yet Competent, its either you know what you are doing or you don’t.
After that there is something called PoE (Portfolio of Evidence) which is a file showing the evidence that you have been teaching students and assessing them. In the file you must have all the 3 questions papers for formative assessments and their marking scheme and also the 3 practicals and their marking scheme. Some units only have theory so you just file the question paper and the marking schemes. You also file the class attendance register, the CAT attendance register, the marksheet for all the 3 assessments and their averages, learning plan (schemes of work), records of work and session (lesson) plans and a copy of your TVETA license. Most of them public institutions didn’t want this but now they were forced to accept after being told of budget cuts or not given capitation so they have to tow the line.
They preferred KNEC just like where I tutor we are still inclined to KNEC and we are examined by KNEC. The good thing with KNEC is that their system haina kazi mingi. You just teach, give CATs and mark also unawapea take away CATS. Then the end of the semester they have internal exams to gauge them and they are examined by KNEC at the end of the year when they are done with the module. As of now the status of KNEC is currently unkown since CDACC has taken over the mandate for curriculum development and assessment so we will have to wait and see what happens juu sasa hata KJSEA and KPSEA ni kama KNEC inapigwa teke pia.
The CDACC system has its downsides too. First of all its very expensive, coursework fees and also assessment fees. Kwanza coursework unaambiwa ulipe 105k per year only to be taught 6 units a whole year since its 2 units per term. Some people were dropping their studies since HELB nayo hailipi and some students don’t have faith with it. The situation was so dire that the government had to come in and set a fee of 67k per year. Those under KNEC here, pay 40k and they are taught 7-8 units per semester. Assessment fees pia si mchezo nilipiga hesabu for our institution na nikaona we could have coughed up about 5million in assessment fees as compared to KNEC which is 2 million (paid by students of course). Also, for CDACC you must have equipment and practical materials since they will be highly needed in practicals which can cost upwards of 20million for courses like engineering (automotive, electrical and mechanical), ICT, Fashion and design etc. Some institutions lack the equipment so they resort to giving students practical papers where they write their names and the institutions gives them marks unaambiwa uende YouTube ujionee vile iyo machine inaoperate na ujipange juu sasa where do you expect to get all that equipment and you have 100+ students to teach kwanza TVET institutions which are public. Kitu nilichukia about CDACC is examination administration, manze CDACC sends the exams to the institutions portal 1 hour before they start. Sasa kama your institution offers 15+ courses and you have over 100+ students per class iyo siku utaimba kuimba. You can imagine making copies and printing such numbers of exams for students.
For us, the school has said tutaendelea na KNEC mpaka ile siku tutapewa further communication from KNEC regarding its fate.